Review of Trance (2013) by Clarisesamuels — 22 Aug 2013

This mind-spinning thriller is based on bold cinematography, intricate film editing, and fierce acting from all parties, especially the three principal actors James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, and Rosario Dawson. Unfortunately, the film strains credulity a bit, and the basic premise of the film does not hold up under close scrutiny. Nevertheless, it is extremely riveting, if not, how shall I say?--hypnotizing, as long as one does not search too deeply for logic and coherence.

McAvoy, as Simon, carries most of the film in his role of security guard working for an art auction house. He is trained to protect the masterpieces from armed robbers, and he gives a fascinating voice-over tutorial on how these security procedures are carried out. But despite all the precautions, during the auctioning of Goya’s Witches in the Air, the auction house is robbed. Simon flies into action to rescue the painting, but he is confronted by bad guy Franck (Vincent Cassel) in the bowels of the building. Franck hits him over the head with the barrel of a gun, which causes Simon to have amnesia, not total amnesia, just amnesia about where he hid the painting before he got hit over the head.

Simon was actually in on the heist because he had gambling debts to pay off. Getting hit over the head convinced all witnesses that Simon tried his hardest to get that painting to safety, and the press hails him as a hero. But Franck tries to remove Simon’s fingernails to get him to confess where the painting is, and realizes that even when screaming with pain, Simon sticks to his story. Simon really does have amnesia. Therefore, what do vulgar, undereducated, gangster-type losers do when confronted with such a dilemma? Naturally, they google all the hypnotherapists in the area and tell Simon to choose one he likes. He picks Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) because he likes the name, or so he says. Thereupon revolves the fragile hinge for the entire plot. Without revealing the whodunit, or the whoforgot-whodunit of this film, it turns out that Simon likes a lot more than the hypnotist’s name.

Simon falls in love with the hypnotist, who is so good at her job that she can make anyone remember anything, and she can even introduce evil motivations with her skills. The Goya painting, it has been noted by the critics, is the MacGuffin of the film. But thieves who steal great masterpieces of art are presumably art collectors of the most obsessive kind, because it is virtually impossible to sell a stolen masterpiece on the street. Therefore, the greedy and monetary desire to own this painting, when the thugs are kind of stupid, does not make much sense. As was noted by Alfred Hitchc*ck, a MacGuffin that is used to hunt lions in the Scottish Highlands, where there are no lions, is not a MacGuffin.

Franck the gangster also falls in love with the hypnotist; thus, we have a love triangle, where hypnotized Simon keeps remembering strange things that don’t add up to Elizabeth’s professional image. There are complicated subplots, recurring flashbacks, betrayals, and counter betrayals. The power of Elizabeth Lamb to hypnotize anyone to do her bidding makes her the Evil Mastermind of this film. The problem is that it is well documented that hypnosis cannot force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do--not even to make an unnecessary purchase. And that a hypnosis session is more like an intensely focused conversation with the hypnotist, where a deep state of trance is never actually achieved. Sigmund Freud abandoned hypnosis when he found he could achieve the same results with free association. If in fact we could get everyone to do our bidding with hypnosis, a lot of people would be lining up to pay their tuition at the nearest hypnosis institute, and we would have a hypnotist hanging out her sign on every corner.

And there goes the plot...