Trance (Danny Boyle, 2013)

What's it about? Simon (James McAvoy) is the inside man for a criminal gang who are planning to steal a valuable painting at auction. However, during the heist, Simon gets a blow to the head and cannot remember what he did with the stolen canvas. The gang turn to hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to see if she can unlock his lost memory.

Is it any good? Sorry about this folks, I can't quite remember what I thought of this...

*AND......SLEEP*

Oh, wait, it's coming back to me now. There's a whiff of style over substance here with a film that's slickly assembled, but ultimately a bit hollow. It sets itself up well with a different spin on the usual heist caper, but starts to tread water a bit during the hypnotherapy scenes, relying on some grisly moments of violence to keep the interest, before everything is revealed in a flurry of exposition at the end. By this point, it has stretched credibility to a large extent, but it's enjoyable nonetheless, with McAvoy good as Ewan McGregor, and one rather hypnotic moment involving the sultry Dawson in the nip. That said, I'd say all it would take is a fingersnap from someone and I'd would mostly forget about it.

*SNAP! AND.....WAKE*

What? What are you all looking at?

Anything else I should know? I got hypnotised once to help stop smoking. "How much do you smoke?" asked the therapist. "Only after sex," I replied, "so that makes me a 20-a-day man". Booyah!!

What does the Fonz think? Memories are made of this.

Buy it on Amazon