Trance
2013
**
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, Danny Sapani, Matt Cross, Wahab Sheikh, Mark Poltimore, Tuppence Middleton
A gang of criminals attempt to steal an expensive Goya painting at a London auction house, but a young auctioneer puts the work in a safe place. If only he could remember where that is after a serious head trauma. The gang plan to extract the information with the help of a hypnotherapist. The flashy visuals and the infernally loud soundtrack cannot cover up the emptiness of Danny Boyle's twisty but dull thriller, which was heavily influenced by Inception. The script's dubious view of the powers and techniques of hypnotherapy renders the entire story implausible, but the poor characterisation is the film's ultimate undoing. Who do I root for in a battle of wits between a violent gangster, a psychopath and a swindler?
