Since my Danny Boyle fandom began in 2007, he's had a great habit of topping himself. Sunshine blew me away and I still enjoy it today, Slumdog Millionaire was an addictive experience and 127 Hours is so incredibly cathartic that it remains right beside Trainspotting in my ranking. He's got enough in his backlog for me to call myself a lifelong fan. But when it comes to Trance, it seems like he's forgotten the last 17 years entirely. I see what he was trying to do here.
I love his debut, Shallow Grave, when I was on my first Danny Boyle high with 4 of his films in my top 10 of all-time, Grave was my favourite. It's Boyle's own favourite. He has the philosophy that a debut film is always the best one because it best represents the energy of a new talent. Perhaps Boyle missed England, he hasn't set a film here since Millions, nearly 10 years ago. The quality of Trance could've been expectable from Boyle back in the 90s, but he has such a better standard than this today that it's not acceptable.
It feels as though the film Boyle would've made to followup Shallow Grave, and then subsequently crashed under the pressure. Like Grave, it features a triptych of immoral characters who seduce, taunt and torture each other to get what they want. There's no-one to root for. But that's okay, Grave made it work, but Trance scrambles its material and sets it in a bizarre world that's dangerous yet comical to the point where it doesn't add up. It wants us to question what's real and what's not real but the "real-world" is so strange that it's already lost me. It does have mystery and it does make me intrigued, but it resolves it in a very contrived way, if unpredictable.
The opening is enjoyable enough but once it gets past the middle, it becomes such a jumbled mess that I don't know what was going on nor do I really care. The huge twists are a step too far and results it in being a visceral and mostly gruesome experience. Better in the sense that it made the story and characters richer but it didn't really improve the film. However, to its credit, it's never boring. It's just ridiculous and confusing. The least you can expect from Boyle is a whirlwind of visuals and music, and while the music delivers as always, the cinematography is really all over the place and doesn't feel cinematic at all. It feels amateur and devoid of atmosphere and character.
It's a film that doesn't know what it wants to be - fun, funny or mind-blowing? It just ends up unpleasant. To be fair, it does deliver some thrills, even if it doesn't really add up or resonate emotionally. And there's some Boyle charm that I love regardless of the packaging. McAvoy and Cassel's performances are great, even if their characters are complete messes. Unfortunately, Dawson doesn't stand up to them, although she starts strong, the more she gets involved, the more out of place she becomes. Very disappointing, his worst, even under Millions and A Life Less Ordinary.
4/10
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