Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A violent gang enlists the help of a hypnotherapist in an attempt to locate a painting which somehow vanished in the middle of a heist.
Danny Boyle's Trance is a slick, visually inventive neo-noir thriller that leans heavily on its hypnosis-and-unreliable-memory conceit. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional — Boyle and DP Anthony Dod Mantle deploy vivid color, fluid camera work, and dreamlike transitions that blur reality and suggestion with real flair. The plot is clever and twisty, keeping audiences guessing through multiple layers of deception, though it occasionally strains credulity and relies on coincidence. The acting is competent — McAvoy, Cassel, and Dawson all deliver — but none rises to truly memorable territory. The film's concept (hypnotherapy meets heist thriller) has some novelty but isn't wholly unique, sitting in familiar Danny Boyle stylistic territory. The ending, meant to be a final revelatory twist, feels overworked and somewhat unsatisfying — the layers of manipulation collapse into a resolution that leaves more narrative holes than emotional payoff.