Review of Trance (2013) by Romeo H — 14 Aug 2013

Trance starts off as a simple heist movie gone wrong before transforming into a mind bending thriller with similarities to movies like Inception & Memento. It becomes hard to distinguish what's real and what's not, but unlike those Nolan classics, Boyle doesn't infuse this film with well-developed characters worth rooting for, therefore lacking a human element.

There's no doubt this is a stylish and very well made film as Danny Boyle is an excellent director and one of my favorites, but the screenplay is lacking in spots. The performances are strong from the cast and especially Rosario Dawson in her best performance I have seen to date.

Once again though, the screenplay lets them down with character motivation being either all over the place or just plain not there at all. It makes it frustrating when the story is so compelling and keeps you on the edge of your seat because nothing is what it seems.

This is one of those movies that will not be fully comprehensible after one viewing and I kind of do want to re-watch it just to see some things I missed because the pacing is frenetic and full speed most of the film, leaving little room to think or catch up, but it would have been nice to fully recommend it with a better screenplay.

Danny Boyle's latest is not one of his best, but it has plenty of strong moments to offset its weaknesses and there will be some people who absolutely love it.