Simon (McAvoy), an art dealer, is embroiled in a plot by Franck (Vincent Cassel) to steal a famous Goya painting. During the crime though, a blow to the head gives Simon serious amnesia, and he is taken to a therapist (Rosario Dawson) who’ll use hypnosis to get him to remember a very important detail….
With snazzy designer London locations (that look like purpose built sets) and characters that are difficult to connect with, Trance is (as the Economist puts it) “a fast, cheap, aggressively trashy scrap of pulp fiction. From the outset, it never threatens to be anything more than a slick, noirish B-movie.” I watched the first hour thinking “Who cares?” Luckily by the last bit, I was engaged, and I left the picture feeling more satisfied than the opening parts might otherwise have suggested. Stick with it, that’s what I say.