LOS ANGELES — Oscar winning director Danny Boyle crafts a creatively twisted enigmatic mind game exploring identity in an altered state of hypnosis in his latest film, “Trance.”
The idea of one’s unconscious awareness that lies within our darkest dreams, proclivities, and wants is conceptualized in the film raising the question, who or what can you trust?
Simon (James McAvoy) becomes involved in a seemingly well-planned heist with a band of thugs who have their sights set on a famous Goya painting worth millions.
Their idea is to take over a high-end art auction where the picture is being sold, however, things go awry when Simon suffers a major blow to the head during the robbery and is knocked out cold.
After the poorly executed caper is over, the group realizes Simon intended on stealing the painting for his own purposes, and the gang leader, Frank (Vincent Cassel), vows to get it back.
There’s one problem though – Simon has no recollection of what happened to the piece of artwork because he totally lost his memory after being attacked during the hijack.
Frank hires hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) to extract the lost memories and as she begins to crack Simon’s broken subconscious, reality slowly vanishes and he can no longer understand what is the truth and what is abstract.
The three main characters collide in unexpected ways throughout the seductive not-what-you-expect thriller, but are all seen as equals, which is an uncommon characteristic in Boyle’s other movies, “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Trainspotting.”
Dawson dazzles in the key role and effortlessly dominates the big screen with power and authority alongside the male protagonists, which is a welcome change.
Boyle gravitated towards that aspect of the story and explained he had personal motivations for wanting to take on the project.
“The reason to do the film originally is that I have two daughters who are now in their 20s. I’ve never made a film where the woman is the engine of the film and I thought that is disgraceful,” he told BLOUIN ARTINFO at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“The real reason to do the film was that there was a woman at the center of the film. Having said that, you can’t change your spots so I can’t make a feminist film. So it’s still a boy film. It’s still a visceral thrill ride, but why shouldn't I have a woman at the center of it?”
Raving about Dawson’s piquant performance, Boyle firmly stated that more parts like hers in “Trance” need to be created for women in Hollywood, and commented on how little there is for female entertainers to do in film.
“I think it’s a problem for the actresses. They just don’t have the roles and they often play the girlfriends. You know it could be a nice part, but they are kind of the sidekick typically.”
“Trance” opens in limited release April 5.