Trance - Trailer
Danny Boyle’s latest effort. Looks interesting.
Watched: Trance
Observations (and there are a few spoilers here, so if you’re yet to watch then it’s up to you):
- So Rosario Dawson’s vagina stole the painting?
- Seriously, this was a bit of a mind-bender. An hour later, I think I have everything down, but I’ll admit that I’m still a little lost on certain, more human things.
- Dawson’s character, in particular - this could have been a simple refusal to be a victim, but instead it escalates into murder. That’s one thing I can’t get away from - Simon was obviously deeply disturbed, but Elizabeth generally doesn’t seem to be. That doesn’t really explain why she’s smiling at the end. There’s the reading that she did what she did to save Franck’s life, which kind of works given that Simon doesn’t get out of the way, but still. That last scene jarred a little too much.
- Basically, the ending isn’t as tight character-wise as Shallow Grave, and because of that I think my brain wants to throw the entire movie out of the window. Also, I really needed to pee for the last half hour, which might have coloured my perceptions. Let’s not succumb to this.
- The music was fantastic. Rick Smith (of Underworld - the electronic group) has composed for Danny Boyle before (notably the Olympics opening ceremony, but a few other projects too), and he punctuates this one brilliantly. The plot moves at reckless speed, and he just moves it along nicely.
- McAvoy’s status as That Nice Actor Everyone Likes works really well here. The fucking shit.
- In fact, everyone feels well-cast; like any Danny Boyle film, the cast is pretty small, but the roles are generally cast according to how much room they have to breathe. Danny Sapani is just threatening enough, but never dominates the screen when he shares it with Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson is hopelessly sensual (talking about pubic hair could be a lot more gratuitous, but she handles it well), and Cassel is as great as ever.
- It does still feel like Shallow Grave 2.0, which is hardly surprising (check the screenwriting credits); but instead of immediately knowing the characters’ motivations and figuring out how they plan to act on them, you’re knocked back a step. I expect in the next one there’ll be a cast of nine people and the entire movie will be an exercise in working out who’s actually relevant to the plot.
- OK, so: after this (longer than usual, but that’s because it feels a bit like an exorcism), I have a few reservations but the sheer extent to which it satisfied me intellectually leads me to say that I enjoyed this, even if the truth is more like I feel better off for having seen it. Similar feelings to when I came out of Synecdoche, New York with Joe and we didn’t talk for the entire bus ride home.