Famed director Danny Boyle reverts back to more edgy form with Trance after recently holding the title artistic director of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics. Boyle reunites with co-writer John Hodge for the first time since The Beach, however, Trance contains a mind trip plot that is more similar to a different Leonardo DiCaprio film, Inception. Both films deal with extracting information from the subconscious, but instead of blurring the line between reality and dreams like in Inception, Trance puts its characters (and audience) under the mental state of hypnosis. Unfortunately, the line the film without a doubt straddles is between greatness and atrocious as the final act weakens everything that comes before it.

Trance opens at a heart-pumping pace when a London art auction employee named Simon (James McAvoy) describes the procedure they must follow in the event of an attempt of robbery. This is an obvious foreshadow to what is about to happen in the next scene. Just as the auction for Francisco Goya’s “Wiches in the Air” reaches 30 million dollars, Franck (Vincent Cassel) and his gang bust in the room with smoke bombs and shotguns in hand.

Simon remains remarkably calm and follows the procedure he just got done explaining during the voiceover at the beginning. However, just as he is about to secure the painting down the emergency chute, Franck smacks him with the butt of his gun. The robbers manage to get away with the painting only to realize a short while later that the actual canvas is missing and they only have the frame of the painting. Suspecting that Simon had something to do with the mix up, Franck hires a hypnotist (Rosario Dawson) to dive into Simon’s subconscious in order to figure out where he hid the painting.

All of this happens within the first ten minutes and barely scratches the surface of all the different directions the film ends up going. What starts as a rather standard heist film quickly morphs into a psychological thriller. As more and more of the story unfolds it forces you into thinking that any one of the three main characters controls the power—which is what makes the experience so enjoyable. And for the majority of the runtime Trance is one hell of a ride.

Alongside his familiar cinematography collaborator Anthony Dod Mantle, Danny Boyle creates a patchwork of carefully shot and edited scenes that play mental head games of déjà vu for the viewer. The visuals are wonderfully paired with the narrative like a glass of red wine and a juicy steak. Trance employs some amazing techniques to visually achieve a subconscious view of Simon’s mind through the use of reflections, titled camera angles, vibrant colors, and precise focusing in conjunction with a pulsating score.

But things go awry in the final 20 minutes of the film. Even though there were some minor plausibility issues from the start, the ending is downright ridiculous and feels cheap. The first two acts put on a brilliant demonstration of storytelling and visual effects only for the whole production to completely stall out in the final act. Events transpire that I would expect from the Fast and Furious franchise that end up undermining the cleverness Trance began with. Even the music takes a huge departure from the moody atmospheric beats that fill most of the film to an almost upbeat and cheery sound by the end.

Although most of the flaws can be overlooked, Trance comes up shy of something truly great because it ultimately becomes too contrived to simply overlook. The ending wraps the plotlines up far too neatly for the audience by answering almost all of the mysterious that made it interesting. Unfortunately, the whole film is affected by the zany third act, but if you can manage to overlook that, Trance can be a nifty thriller that is entertaining enough to seek out.

In order to celebrate the Blu-ray/DVD release of Danny Boyle’s Trance on July 23rd, we are giving away a copy of Trance on Blu-ray to one of our readers. Trance follows a fine-art auctioneer named Simon (James McAvoy), who after a blow to his head during an attempted robbery of a valuable painting, awakens to find that the painting – and his memory – have disappeared. He enters a deadly love triangle with a hypnotist (Rosario Dawson) when he is forced to undergo hypnosis by his partner in crime (Vincent Cassel).

How do you enter the giveaway?

Simply email me (dustin AT waytooindie.com) or tweet us at @WayTooIndie your favorite Vincent Cassel film See our post of Vincent Cassel’s Most Seductive Roles for some ideas.

Trance is available on DVD and Blu-ray on July 23rd!

TRANCE Blu- ray Special Features

• Theatrical Feature Blu-ray
• Deleted Scenes
• Trance Unraveled (Easter Egg)
• The Power of Suggestion-Making Trance
• Kick Off
• Danny’s Film Noir
• Hypnotherapy
• The Look
• The Final Rewrite
• Danny Boyle Retrospective
• Short Film: EUGENE by Spencer Susser
• Theatrical Trailer
• UV Copy

TRANCE DVD Exclusive Features

• Theatrical Feature
• Hypnotherapy
• The Look
• The Power of Suggestion-Making Trance
• The Final Rewrite
• Theatrical Trailer

Watch the trailer for Trance:

We have created a list of Vincent Cassel’s Most Seductive Roles to go along with the release of his latest role in Danny Boyle’s Trance, which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on July 23rd.

It’s undeniable that French-born actor Vincent Cassel has a certain charm about him. Even when playing a darker character, it’s hard not to be intrigued by him. From abusive dance teacher to a robber rolling in money we’ll examine Cassel’s most memorable personas.

Thomas Leroy (Black Swan)

Thomas Leroy uses sexuality and psychology to train the ballerinas in his company. He pushes Nina Sayers to become a perfect Swan Queen and tries to bring out the darker side of the relatively innocent young dancer. Leroy’s creepy and abusive personality makes him an unforgettable character in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan that will haunt the memories of film-fanatics for years to come.

Vinz (La Haine)

In the French film La Haine, Vinz captured the attention of the audience who felt his anger and determination in finding vengeance for the death of his friend. Though Vinz desires to get revenge on the police force, he realizes that he does not have the heart for killing out of hatred.

Francois Toulour (Ocean’s Twelve)

As the wealthy Francois Toulour, Vincent Cassel portrays a robber who is well known for his ability to outsmart others. The dapper Toulour wowed the audience with his car, lakeside mansion, and smooth personality. Although he is one of the “bad guys” in the Ocean’s series, he is ranks as one of the most memorable characters.

Max Kerkerian (The Crimson Rivers)

Cassel was both brave and intelligent as French policeman Max Kerkerian in The Crimson Rivers. When Max teams up with a fellow policeman, the two work hard to uncover the truth behind some curious situations. Max is unwilling to leave questions unanswered and helps his partner through the process of searching for a cold-blooded killer.

Franck (Trance)

Cassel doesn’t look to disappoint in his latest role in Trance. Franck has a steamy relationship with a hypnotist by the name of Elizabeth, with whom he plans an intricately detailed heist. There is something alluring about Franck, who somehow escapes even the toughest of situations and is not what he seems to be at first sight.

Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 127 Hours) has always had a knack to bring interesting stories to life in his films and his latest film Trance is no exception. It follows an art auctioneer who teams up with a gang of criminals to steal Francisco Goya’s Witches in the Air, a painting that is worth millions. During the heist an incident occurs where the auctioneer loses memory of where he hid the painting, forcing the gang to hire a hypnotherapist to try to pry at his subconscious.

Trance lands on Blu-ray and DVD on July 23rd

TRANCE Blu- ray Special Features

• Theatrical Feature Blu-ray
• Deleted Scenes
• Trance Unraveled (Easter Egg)
• The Power of Suggestion-Making Trance
• Kick Off
• Danny’s Film Noir
• Hypnotherapy
• The Look
• The Final Rewrite
• Danny Boyle Retrospective
• Short Film: EUGENE by Spencer Susser
• Theatrical Trailer
• UV Copy

TRANCE DVD Exclusive Features

• Theatrical Feature
• Hypnotherapy
• The Look
• The Power of Suggestion-Making Trance
• The Final Rewrite
• Theatrical Trailer

The now widely known Canadian electronic powerhouse, known to the general public as deadmau5, has released his sixth record entitled >album title goes here<. The album is a wildly different approach to the world of electronic/trance music than what listeners have heard on the previous albums. The only question one may ask is this: is this a good or bad thing? deadmau5 has been ridiculed in years past for making music that sounds no different from the next, meaning that all of his songs that he produces sounds alike. Now, I must agree that is kind of a common theme in the music business in general, so it isn’t really a surprising that people have accused deadmau5 of this. Especially when you consider the genre of music that is fairly notorious for the music sounding alike. However, >album title goes here< varies so greatly from previous deadmau5 albums that it is hard to believe at times you are even listening to a deadmau5 album!

I am going to say something that is going to contradict myself right now…and I want everyone that reads this to know that I am doing so and that I realize it. While I was listening to >album title goes here<, the first song, “Superliminal” sounded like pure deadmau5 goodness and I was very much anticipating the next tracks. To my utter surprise I had recognized the beats to the very next song! How was that possible since it was my first time experiencing the album? I soon realized that the song “Channel 42” had recycled the opening beats and fade-in intro from one of my favorite deadmau5 songs from 4×4=12, “A City In Florida.”

Like I said before, it is not uncommon that musicians often stick to what works and this is clearly what happened here with the song “Channel 42.” I am sure that there are other songs from other albums by deadmau5 that are closely related to one another too, but this is the one I found to stand out to me. And I realize this can open up a Pandora’s box of criticisms of other artists, which is not what I am trying to accomplish with this statement, but just pointing out an observation that I made while listening.

The variety of musicians that leant their vocals and other musical talents to >album title goes here< is so broad that it ranges from; emo pop icons, to a Cuban/Latino hip pop group, to a British Grammy Award winning songstress, to a house DJ to a dude who happened to add his vocals to one of deadmau5’s tracks, “The Veldt”. The artists that I am speaking of are Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance in “Professional Grifers”, Cypress Hill in “Failbait”, Imogen Heap in “Telemiscommunications”, Wolgang Gartner in “Channel 42”, and Chris James in “The Veldt”. Quite frankly, I haven’t heard that kind of diversity on an album that at the same time holds true to the original genre, electronic/house music.

I feel like it is ridiculously hard to review an album of this nature. There isn’t much you can add to reviews that have been written in the past about electronic music due to the similarities between them. Bumping bass? Check. Synths? Check. Random bits of sampling? Check. The formula is pretty basic when you break it all down, but I think the most important aspect of electric/house music is this; does it make me want to dance like an overwhelming fool? In the terms of this >album title goes here< not so much. There are certainly times when the album lags and changes from traditional electronic music. Now, the question is if this is a bad thing or not and quite frankly that is a matter of opinion. Maybe deadmau5 has stumbled upon a new kind of electronic music. Only time can tell on that thought.

I feel like the musicians are expected to make music that sounds the same but at the same time completely different and fresh. >album title goes here< is an album that makes this idea a reality by having the first half of the album sound like “old” deadmau5 tracks and the second half of the album is the completely different “new” sounding deadmau5 tracks. Basically, the album is split down the middle in my mind. Old versus new. I have to say, I stand on the old side for the most part. Quite frankly, it is hard for me to decide whether I liked the album or disliked the album. Indifferent would be more appropriate.