Review of Trance

Memories are warm. Memories are hot. Just like McAvoy’s eyes.

While the ending left me feeling lukewarm, Trance is oh-so-interesting and has the stylish flair that I've come to expect from Danny Boyle. For those reasons alone, it ranks far above the majority of films that came out in its year.

I kept a special eye on Boyle's color treatment throughout the film. Trance is an islander's wet dream with color saturation turned to 11. Its first act is mostly blue on brown, transitioning through the primaries (red and then yellow).

The first and last shots are an example of creating a closed loop through visual language. One of the first shots in Trance shows the Rembrandt painting, large, in the background with a character overlaid while one of the last shots in the film shows the same Rembrandt in the background, small, and beside a character.