Trance

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Trance, while an attempt to duplicate the awesomeness of Inception, had it's own horror element. What if it wasn't someone controlling your dreams, but someone controlling you while you are awake? The horror of being one of the 5% of people in this world who are so susceptible to hypnotism is unimaginable and something that Trance explores very well. Unfortunately, the plot is horrendous and the villains a caricature of what they could have been.

In the film, Simon (James McAvoy), an auctioneer of fine art conspires with a team of thieves led by Franck(Vincent Cassel). Simon is the inside man who will help them get the painting titled "Witches in the Air" by Francisco Goya, sold for more than $20 million. Yet, strangely he does not give up the painting to Franck who bashes him with a rifle-looking gun, instead he provokes him into doing it.

To say the least, after that bash in the head, Simon does not have the slightest idea where that painting may be. Franck figures out torture won't get it out of him and decides to get Simon hypnotherapy. This therapy includes making his captors feel weak so that he feels in control and finally remembers where he put the painting. In one scene, one of the kidnappers is hypnotized by Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) into thinking he is being buried alive and Simon laughs maniacally while the guy is shaking and sweating in the chair.

I find the patience of these thieves hard to believe. I get that some criminals have a code of honor or a love for the "principle" of things, but are you telling me you are a thief and a remorseless killer, but you take the time to deal with this fool and his selective memory loss? What's stopping you from putting two bullets in his head and finding another inside man in another auction house? Not that weak gamblers like Simon fall out of the trees, but still.

Simon chooses Elizabeth at random and she immediately finds out that Simon is under surveillance when she sees the wire sticking out of his sweaty chest on one of their sessions. She decides to work with the team and find out where the painting is.

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Elizabeth sleeps with Franck while she starts to date Simon who has become obsessed with her. In one of their nights out, they come back to her place and Elizabeth shaves her pubic hair and there it is, on the big screen, Rosario Dawson in all her full frontal nudity. They were attempting to make a connection between his love of nude paintings and Elizabeth trying to give him what he wants in order to appease him, but I felt that his awe-struck face was HI-larious.

Flash forward and we find out Simon was Elizabeth's violent and obsessive boyfriend who she one day decided to leave after he slapped the skin off of her lower lip.  Of course, he kept stalking her and she, in an effort to lead a peaceful life, hypnotized him into forgetting her. It is revealed that Simon is one of the 5% who are extremely susceptible to hypnotism.

Because she's a greedy bitch who feels she should get something out of the disastrous relationship, Elizabeth also tells him that he has to get her his most valuable painting.

Again, this seems to be ridiculous. You just got out of a violent relationship with a guy who is so insane with deep, ingrained anger that he assaulted you and killed a girl who he thought was you, why on earth would you ever compel him to come back into your life?

Sadistic Simon
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As mentioned above, there are many things wrong with this movie, aside from the little things that never got explained. Yet, I still love how the movie was narrated by Simon and how we got inside his head with dream-like sequences and illusions. I also like the symbolism of the painting "Witches in the Air" because Elizabeth was the witch controlling everyone and it seemed fitting for her to have the painting. Most of all, I am satisfied with the ending, as I never was with Inception which ended with what could be interpreted both ways, reality or a dream. Maybe I'm not that deep, but I don't like to be confused when I leave a movie theatre. Trance left me with a few questions, but in the end I had my feet firmly on the ground because I know what happened and I know for certain what was real and what was not.

Although, Inception had more action, in Trance it wasn't necessary. This film is a study of the mind and  how one person can have power over another person with hardly any effort. This, to me, seems more horrifying than Inception, where one needs a whole team to do the job and ultimately the dreamer has some control over their actions. Whereas a dreamer chooses to open the door, a person under hypnosis has already opened the door without knowing why and the thought of that sends shivers down my spine.

Finally, I would like to say that James McAvoy is a darn good actor. He plays the psycho very well, but we also saw the loving boyfriend before the obsession. The charmer. The man Elizabeth fell in love with. Throughout the whole film McAvoy added a complexity to Simon that few can achieve in the field.

Trance is now in theaters.