Trance (Film Review)

TRANCE - A half-conscious state characterized by an absence of response to external stimuli, typically as induced by hypnosis or entered by a medium.

Danny Boyle has been one of my favorite filmmaker living today. It wasn't about the trippy tone and gorgeous cinematography he puts throughout his movie, mostly it's about the way he presents his stories. He moved more mainstream in Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours (and almost forgot the previous 2012 Olympics opening ceremony). But in his latest take on the thriller genre Trance, the classic Boyle are going back to his Trainspotting and Shallow Grave roots while taking a few twists and turns all into one psychological/ mind boggling thriller you shouldn't miss.

The story of Trance is rather to complicated and overlayered. But don't worry, i'm not a big spoiler to writing my reviews. Ok, so Trance follows Simon, an art auctioneer who's been known to be a hero after being knocked out on the head by heist men led by Franck. But Simon didn't follow the plan, suffering from severe amnesia and had no idea where the painting is. So Franck hires Simon a hypnotherapist in an attempt to recover the lost masterpiece. And what we get starting from there is a story of painful secrets and obsessions and deceits.

Trance puts the top spot of my most anticipated movie of 2013. I know it sounds weird to say that, but c'mon it's Danny Boyle so move over Iron Man or summer movie explosions, Trance is the movie you've gotta see. And in my opinion, is the best movie of 2013 so far. It had everything you want for a Danny Boyle movie. Great acting, stunning cinematography, relaxing score and a well-written dialogue.

Performance-wise, it's always great. But however, James McAvoy always steals the movie. He tried to make his performances very different from his other roles. And what I liked about him is that he kept pushing to the extreme, he keeps escalating that actually fits for the storyline of the film that keeps getting grittier and better. Rosario Dawson is also in this movie, she plays Elizabeth the hypnotherapist. So, at first I thought she felt miscasted. Not that I hated her, she had done a lot of bad performance throughout his career. She was surprisingly good here. And we get to see humanity in her coming out of the screen which what lacks on her previous films like Alexander and Descent. And not but not the least, Vincent Cassell. Cassell is amazing in this movie, I didn't even what to expect in him but he provides a much more darker and serious role. He stays great in every movie he has been.

Now let's talk about some cinematography and soundtrack here. The cinematography of the movie is dreamy. I somewhat felt hallucinated on how beautiful it looked like. Some shots in the movie wherein this specific scene takes inside the mind of McAvoy's character is completely fascinating to look at. Moving further, my favorite aspect of the movie is it's soundtrack. It is too relaxing and the thing about the songs used in the movie is that it's well-reformed and balanced pretty well with the multi-layered story. Just listen to this track by Rick Smith and let me know what you think:

'Trance' has got to be the best film of 2013 so far. What made it so perfect is how Boyle reincorporate the film noir for the modern audiences. Despite this being an artsy film and nail biting at the same time, this film delivers pretty well with its twists and making it the best Danny Boyle movie of all time.

The geek rates it 9.5/10. I will be back for tomorrow for my review of Iron Man 3.

Special thanks goes out to 20th Century Fox for the invites for the press screening yesterday!

Trance is rated R-16 and showing nationwide starting May 1!

In the meantime, why not check this featurette from Trance: