Trance

Director: Danny Boyle
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.0

Art auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy) is secretly in cahoots with a gang (led by Vincent Cassel) to steal a long-lost Goya painting ... except the heist doesn't go as planned and Simon gets hit in the head and develops amnesia, so a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) is enlisted to "unlock" his memory and figure out where the painting was hidden. As wonky as the setup sounds, the way this plays out is even more jumbled, with too many cinematic ploys and 'ah-ha!' moments thrown in with whimsy: it's toying with the audience, but not in a smart or clever way (also see: Inception). It goes completely overboard in the last third, routinely switching around characters, changing their narratives and playing out 'delusions' (in McAvoy's character's head) ... it's all a giant case of hackneyed Deception.