Doomed

That's just what you do, you over analyse everything.

Familiarity is the most potent pull.

Interpretation

No one is an absolute. Everyone is a spectrum.

Goodbye

It's probably a fallacy to assume that in life you will always get a goodbye. But all I've ever strived to do, in every aspect of my day to day existence, is to ensure that as I part company from someone I care about, that they will have a pleasant memory of me. It's a completely unfounded fear as you never know when it'll be the last time you see someone, living like that is incredibly morbid or pessimistic. That's just how I roll, even to the extent upon sleeping ensuring the last thing I say out loud is a bid goodnight, so the last thing I've said is with love. Yup, totally morbid, but it's an ongoing habit I've adopted. The bemusing thing is, the last time I see most people, I never know it's the last time, and my last encounter is always not how I imagined it. If I died, I would want my last words to be ... something... That's not life, it never will be. Life moves like an irascible child, furiously pelting towards it's inevitable conclusion, oblivion.

Trance

I haven't written on here a while, I learnt how to gif and tumblr and... Well, I get easily distracted, turns out my calling is to make gifs of every FFIX FMV ever, largely because, and let's be honest here, it's the best game in the series. Not that Square Enix will acknowledge this... I also have a draft of a review of Blue Valentine, but it became a bit of a rambling mess, moreso than my usual offerings so it's been left to rot.

So, I wanted to see this film largely because it in all honesty looked like a compilation of Danny Boyle's previous works, predominantly Shallow Grave. To be fair, it's one of Boyle's more enjoyable films I've seen in a while, Slumdog Millionaire was a great film, don't get me wrong, but it seemed achingly predictable, the one thing Trance is not, is predictable. I definitely enjoy anything which sets my eyebrows higher than they usually settle. So believe me when I say, the bar was set pretty high, as were my eyebrows.* I'm going to go out on a limb here, having seen about 80% of Danny Boyle's filmography, and say, it's not his best film, not by a long way, but it's definitely one of his most fun ones in a while, plus any time I'm reminded of Shallow Grave, I do feel particularly enthused. It all boils down to two men and a woman, all of whom are a bit unhinged, basically squabbling over something of value, plus death is never far around the corner and it all descends into a grim and shocking finale. So there's some strong comparisons to Shallow Grave, where Trance seems to branch off into it's own persona, is it's exploration of the human mind and this is probably where it loses, and gains, it's flair and where most of the film's problems come from.

I'm just going to dive right in with my slight issues, complaints and admirations, I will do my best not to inflict any spoilers on those who have yet to see the film, but I'll probably let a couple slip. Before we start, let's have a brief run through, James McAvoy is playing a guy who works at an auction house, he's responsible, in case of a burglary, for the extremely pricey art on display, Vincent Casselles plays criminal who tries to steal the expensive art, he clubs McAvoy on the head, then we spend most of the film trying to get McAvoy to recall where he left the damn thing, enter psychotherapist, Rosario Dawson to hypnotise her way into McAvoy's head and getting a share of the money the painting is worth. Oh, if it's not obvious McAvoy was in on the heist. Got that? No? Well that's the simple turn of events, it all gets incredibly complicated after that.

The thing about this film is, that it starts off really well, I was intrigued, we have McAvoy doing some voiceover work, it's all about repeating the same thing to us, a piece of art is not worth a human life, but of course we all know that's just preparing us for the inevitability that the painting is worth more than that, or it's just flagging the insanity of the plot later on, I'm not sure, but it stops being about the art later on in the film and being more about the unravelling minds of the characters. Then the end of the film feels extremely satisfying, the whole third act works really well in my mind and sure the build up pays off, Boyle sticks in a load of random things for us to recall later in the film as we go, images and connections which pay in dividends at the close of the film but feel superfluous and at times completely confusing. Sure it all makes sense in the end on some clever, logical level, the the middle section of the film is such a barrage of confusing entwining scenes it all just seems to be a mish mash of nonsense at times. Perhaps there were so many ideas, so many threads to entwine, and of course the human mind is a confusing and dangerous place, and I understand Boyle's intention to immerse us in that confusion, sure it's clever, but some scenes lacked cohesion and some parts were just plain silly. I'm fine with a bit of full frontal female nudity, but in my mind that just seemed to shoehorned in there for... < Insert rant about nudity here > I'm not entirely sure what reason to be honest, but the camera was very shy about full frontal female action which seemed... Well, just a bit odd, perhaps it's the feminist streak flaring up, but Boyle goes to great lengths to ensure we see pretty much all of Rosario Dawson, but we don't get the same for McAvoy or Casselles? Well, that's just sexist. Logic that one! </ end rant>

Right, so the middle part was just a bit off, but otherwise it made up for it overall, as a film, my main thought upon leaving the cinema was, it was a mess but it was a fun mess. In some ways, it is quite clever, in the visual notes, the small details, the way the characters are, but in others it feels quite clunky. Let's just say I'm not a massive fan of films which rely too heavily on exposition to explain to us major plot points, and this film is guilty of that, there are parts when the characters take moments to expressly state things we wouldn't otherwise know and explain extremely important plot points to us, this just seems a bit frustrating to me. If you can't without the help of someone spelling it out to you, convey things in a film, why make things so complicated in the first place? I know Shakespeare did it all the time, but entertainment has grown and I would expect more from my storytellers than having chunks of exposition doled out via conversation, sure there are flashback sequences playing over the explanations, but come on, it's still a bit cheap. Wow that was another rant wasn't it...

Ok, I'll be a bit more positive. What Trance lacks in finesse, subtlety and cohesion, it more than makes up for in fun and craziness. You can forgive the lack of sense the film is making because it's quite a bit of fun hurtling around, there are jokes with the burglars, there are some visual notes which prompt some chortles, and of course the characters are all similar in their distinct moral ambiguities. Which brings me to main player, the main performance, James McAvoy.**

So, the main part was originally meant to be played by Michael Fassbender***, but he dropped out, I can't recall why, so McAvoy was signed on. Now apart from both of their entrancing set of eyes, the pair both have strengths in different fields I would say, Fassbender has an intensity and a hidden menace which is as alluring as it is distracting, McAvoy has a kind of affable charm and easy going manner about him, or at least that's where their strengths lie in my mind, both are really nice chaps and I do really like them. McAvoy has been dabbling in the action man roles a bit of late and it's nice to see him change it up slightly. He really does place the charming average joe incredibly well but he has about as much menace as a sack of kittens which doesn't do him in any favours in this grim film. Let's just say when his true colours came about I just couldn't buy it, which is a shame because I like him and I genuinely think he's a good actor, but this was just a stretch too far. Which brings me to my other thought, Fassbender, would have done it better... Sorry James, I still love you! The rest of the cast I have nothing remotely worth saying about them, they did well, Rosario Dawson, you are a beautiful specimen, and the camera clearly loves you.

So, does it beat Shallow Grave? Well, no, because Shallow Grave was steeped in realism, and this seemed to veer off into insanity, fun crazy and overall jaw droppingly fun insanity, but the gaps in sense and the fact I was confused for a good half hour of the film, means it's just not quite the classic I had hoped. As with any film which has a decent twist and surprising turn of events, I may just watch it again later to see how I feel about it, knowing where it's all heading, but to be honest, it'll probably be a while. For what it was, mindless violent, crazy fun, it was a decent cinematic experience. It's nonsensical thrill ride for the masses and just mostly stupid fun trying to dress itself up as something deeper, but when it's fun, it's really fun and surprising and worth a watch. Just don't expect it stay with you much longer than the drive home.

*Yup, I'm blogging drunk again, ah good times...

**Nope, I can't be bothered to recall the character's names.

***I know right, they were Magneto and Professor X together, old best buds, and taking each other's film roles, they are that cool... Right?