Trance.

Another Danny Boyle outing, Trance is complex enough to mean that you are unlikely to know what it will be about from the blurb on the case. It follows a debt laden auctioneer whose job it is to safe guard pieces of artwork as they are sold at auction for tens of the millions of pounds. Driven by his gambling debt he helps a gang steal a valuable painting, but when he gets hit on the head during the robbery he forgets when he hid it. The gang then employ a hypnotist to help him remember, but she insists on being part of the gang with a share of the profits.

This film starring James McAvoy, has some great twists and turns, a little humour, some blatant female full frontal nudity, (while the men get to maintain their dignity when they appear nude) and some very gratuitous violence (notably a gun shot in the goolies – ouch). Boyle could argue that the female nudity was essential to the storyline. I disagree. As the auctioneers memory returns, we piece together a tightly wound storyline, which is going somewhere interesting. I have nothing really bad to say about this film. It is a mature film for Boyle. It’s stylish, has a message and a clear linear storyline. However, I wasn’t transfixed by it (pun intended). I don’t think it was Boyle’s greatest film by far. And its message seemed to be misogyny and domestic violence bad, shooting a rapist in the goolies good. But worth a healthy 3 out of 5.