THE SUBCONSCIOUS CAN BE A SCARY THING WHEN YOU'RE IN "TRANCE"

I’m always intrigued when multiple people tell me they “need to watch the film again to be sure they “got” what was going on. It’s usually means one of two things for me. It’s either going to be one of those annoying things you actually need a user’s manual to watch. Or it’s going to be something with really a good dollop of meat on it that I can sink my teeth into. See, I’m fussy like that. I love a good challenge. I definitely don’t like simplistic endings and half – baked storylines. God knows I’ve moaned about it here often enough. But the challenge always is, with these “multiple levels of reality” type film, not ending up with a film so sophisticated you need dedicated websites explaining it in full for people to get it. Which is why I am not a fan of Donnie Darko. But I’ll moan about that some other time. I’m happy to say, having watched Trance, it doesn’t make the sh.t list. It scrapes through. Just, in places, but it scrapes through.

As the late great John Lennon said once, life is what happens to us while we are busy making plans. You can plan something down to the last detail, you can think of every single eventuality, but in the end… Life will happen. Something will “go wrong”.  This is precisely what happens during a seemingly “perfectly” planned heist at a well-known London auction house. The auction house has stringent security systems so the heist has to be planned within an inch of its life. They have everything thought of, down to an “inside man” in the shape of the auctioneer. But then… Life happens. The criminals cannot find the picture they stole, and a blow on the head means the auctioneer, the last person who had it, cannot remember it either. The criminals are utterly desperate to get their booty back so in their desperation they hire the services of a hypnotherapist. But see, that’s the thing with things like hypnosis. Once you let someone so deep into your mind… Well… Practically anything can happen.

Ok, I have to say, I really shouldn’t have mistrusted a master like Danny Boyle. He has done a spectacular job. Don’t sit down to the film with any expectations. Or do, it won’t make much of a difference, you’ll be changing your mind as to what is happening every fifteen minutes. But don’t worry. You go for a very, very exciting ride, but you get the explanation in the end. Yes, yes it’s a tad like the much caricatured “villain explaining his master plan” scene. Don’t be disheartened by that comment though and trust me, by the time Mr Boyle has quite finished with you; you will need someone to sit you down and explain what the heck just happened. The film is fast paced, a bit like the more modern editing style that people see younger directors “accused of” a bit of that, you know,  MTV style, snappy, video clip like editing, you know what I mean. But I reckon it suits the film. It really augments that sense of disorientation that is brought about in Simon, the auctioneer – played by James McAvoy.  I think the “explanation” scene is legit also because, you are as confused as Simon by that point and the editing, the storytelling, the way the film has been structured all compliments that fact.

So, if you want something that is going to present a bit more of a challenge for you, go for Trance by all means. It is different enough so that fogies like me literally have nothing to grumble about and familiar enough so that if you are not a lover of massively complicated plotlines and convoluted films you will still not be completely alienated but actually have a real good time. And also, yes,  it totally deserves a re-watch!