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philosoraptor42Trance (2001)
Background on Joe Ahearne
My knowledge of Joe Ahearne began when I discovered that he wrote and directed several episodes of the hit series ThisLife about a group of lawyers. I then discovered his cool tv series about modern day vampires "Ultraviolet" (not to be confused with Milla Jovovich's cheesy action movie), which also starred Jack Davenport and Idris Elba, as well as Susannah Harker (who is in the tv movie of "Trance" reviewed below).
More recently Joe Ahearne has directed several Doctor Who episodes (not written any though) and went on to make another tv series called "Apparitions" about a moderately liberal exorcist. (About as liberal as you could reasonably portray an exorcist who actually takes his job seriously really, even in fiction.)
Both "Ultraviolet" and "Apparitions" are highly rooted in distinctly Catholic ideas, yet both twist them in interesting ways. As an atheist himself Ahearne is able to play with religious ideas in ways that a believer would most likely be unprepared to do, yet as someone who clearly finds the ideas fascinating he puts a great deal of depth into his writing.
Most recently of all Ahearne has written and directed an episode of the mini-series "The Secret Of Crickley Hall" and I'm very much looking forward to that. However, straight after "Ultraviolet" he made a tv movie with which I had not previously been familiar called "Trance". Many of you may have seen the trailer for a remake of this by Danny Boyle. Here I'll be reviewing the original.
Review of Joe Ahearne's tv movie "Trance"
The premise of Trance, as you can tell from the remake's trailer, is that an art thief forgets where he has hidden the painting because of a blow to the head causing amnesia. Having realised that no amount of brute force can ever get someone to reveal something that they simply cannot remember, the head honcho of the operation decides to try dabbling in hypnotism. As you might expect, this is an utter failure.
It is at this point in the story that they realise that they need a professional. However, it's not long before the professional realises what is really going on and insists that she receive a cut of the spoils.
Ahearne does not simply expect you to accept hypnotism's effectiveness. The woman brought in as a professional hypnotist not only shakes things up because she is a female character being brought into an entirely male group, but also because she is an expert in a field where the rest of them are mostly ignorant. She has to demonstrate how the rules work and the way hypnotism relies on the human mind. She has to both demonstrate and convince these crooks desperate for their money that hypnotism is not a quick fix, yet that with patience and the right environment she can produce results.
Things get possibly a little too ridiculous right at the end, but the movie just about pulls it off. There's a lot of really great scenes, but there are also points where it's pretty clear that we are dealing with a tv movie from British television that is over 10 years old. Ahearne is talented behind the camera, but he's working with a very limited budget.
The interplay of the characters is brilliant. The storyline is a little confusing by the end, but it is built up well and, if you think about it carefully, it does all fit together.
Susannah Harker is absolutely brilliant in the role of the supremely confident hypnotist. Ironically, considering his very fragile role here, John Light who plays the central amnesiac, has since played Lucifer in the last two "The Prophecy" movies. He's excellent as the lead in this and perhaps it's a sign of the extent of his talent that I cannot quite imagine him as the lord of hell based on this. Philip Davis plays one of the heavies in this gang of crooks and he's as great as ever.
Neil Pearson plays the head honcho though and I have trouble really accepting him in the role. I suppose he isn't really meant to be seen as totally unsympathetic, but he just seems way too nice. I felt that he was possibly a weak link in the chain, not because he can't act well, but because his mannerisms as a character didn't seem to gel with the role he was playing.
Trance feels remarkably dated, but its a great story, well made and well worth checking out.
B+
Comparisons with the new trailer
(video link)
On the one hand, I think this could really be a great return to form for Danny Boyle. I haven't really liked any films from Boyle since "28 Days Later" and even then I thought it was problematic. His best films for me are still "Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting". Joe Ahearne is still credited as writer on IMDB rather than just writer of the original screenplay or story, so I hope that means he's directly involved in this project. Meanwhile Danny Boyle has brought back writer John Hodge who he used for all his early movies but stopped using after "The Beach". Danny Boyle's neat little imagery from Trainspotting could work really well here and it looks like Boyle is going to make full use of that style.
On the other hand, the theft of the painting has been drastically changed, possibly to save time at the beginning and get straight into the main plot. In Ahearne's original tv movie there was a sub-plot involving one of the crooks seducing the gallery owner (the protagonist and later amnesiac's boss) by posing as a potential gay lover for him. It was a pretty clever plot and just having a bunch of people rush in with smoke grenades seems a hell of a lot less subtle.
Vincent Cassel definitely seems likely to be a more convincingly threatening boss man than Neil Pearson was. I'm not entirely sure why Rosario Dawson was picked to be the psychiatrist (since she stands out as the one American actor out of the main roles here), but she's been pretty good in the past and I'm sure she can pull this off. (Strangely when I saw this trailer in the cinema, I don't think I recognised her.)
Where I get a little worried is the scene of a car falling off the side of a building while on fire. That just seems to be taking things way too over the top. :S
Anyway, this might be absolutely brilliant and certainly the original script gives it a hell of a lot of potential. I'm really interested to see how well Boyle manages this.
Background on Joe Ahearne
My knowledge of Joe Ahearne began when I discovered that he wrote and directed several episodes of the hit series ThisLife about a group of lawyers. I then discovered his cool tv series about modern day vampires "Ultraviolet" (not to be confused with Milla Jovovich's cheesy action movie), which also starred Jack Davenport and Idris Elba, as well as Susannah Harker (who is in the tv movie of "Trance" reviewed below).
More recently Joe Ahearne has directed several Doctor Who episodes (not written any though) and went on to make another tv series called "Apparitions" about a moderately liberal exorcist. (About as liberal as you could reasonably portray an exorcist who actually takes his job seriously really, even in fiction.)
Both "Ultraviolet" and "Apparitions" are highly rooted in distinctly Catholic ideas, yet both twist them in interesting ways. As an atheist himself Ahearne is able to play with religious ideas in ways that a believer would most likely be unprepared to do, yet as someone who clearly finds the ideas fascinating he puts a great deal of depth into his writing.
Most recently of all Ahearne has written and directed an episode of the mini-series "The Secret Of Crickley Hall" and I'm very much looking forward to that. However, straight after "Ultraviolet" he made a tv movie with which I had not previously been familiar called "Trance". Many of you may have seen the trailer for a remake of this by Danny Boyle. Here I'll be reviewing the original.
Review of Joe Ahearne's tv movie "Trance"
The premise of Trance, as you can tell from the remake's trailer, is that an art thief forgets where he has hidden the painting because of a blow to the head causing amnesia. Having realised that no amount of brute force can ever get someone to reveal something that they simply cannot remember, the head honcho of the operation decides to try dabbling in hypnotism. As you might expect, this is an utter failure.
It is at this point in the story that they realise that they need a professional. However, it's not long before the professional realises what is really going on and insists that she receive a cut of the spoils.
Ahearne does not simply expect you to accept hypnotism's effectiveness. The woman brought in as a professional hypnotist not only shakes things up because she is a female character being brought into an entirely male group, but also because she is an expert in a field where the rest of them are mostly ignorant. She has to demonstrate how the rules work and the way hypnotism relies on the human mind. She has to both demonstrate and convince these crooks desperate for their money that hypnotism is not a quick fix, yet that with patience and the right environment she can produce results.
Things get possibly a little too ridiculous right at the end, but the movie just about pulls it off. There's a lot of really great scenes, but there are also points where it's pretty clear that we are dealing with a tv movie from British television that is over 10 years old. Ahearne is talented behind the camera, but he's working with a very limited budget.
The interplay of the characters is brilliant. The storyline is a little confusing by the end, but it is built up well and, if you think about it carefully, it does all fit together.
Susannah Harker is absolutely brilliant in the role of the supremely confident hypnotist. Ironically, considering his very fragile role here, John Light who plays the central amnesiac, has since played Lucifer in the last two "The Prophecy" movies. He's excellent as the lead in this and perhaps it's a sign of the extent of his talent that I cannot quite imagine him as the lord of hell based on this. Philip Davis plays one of the heavies in this gang of crooks and he's as great as ever.
Neil Pearson plays the head honcho though and I have trouble really accepting him in the role. I suppose he isn't really meant to be seen as totally unsympathetic, but he just seems way too nice. I felt that he was possibly a weak link in the chain, not because he can't act well, but because his mannerisms as a character didn't seem to gel with the role he was playing.
Trance feels remarkably dated, but its a great story, well made and well worth checking out.
B+
Comparisons with the new trailer
(video link)
On the one hand, I think this could really be a great return to form for Danny Boyle. I haven't really liked any films from Boyle since "28 Days Later" and even then I thought it was problematic. His best films for me are still "Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting". Joe Ahearne is still credited as writer on IMDB rather than just writer of the original screenplay or story, so I hope that means he's directly involved in this project. Meanwhile Danny Boyle has brought back writer John Hodge who he used for all his early movies but stopped using after "The Beach". Danny Boyle's neat little imagery from Trainspotting could work really well here and it looks like Boyle is going to make full use of that style.
On the other hand, the theft of the painting has been drastically changed, possibly to save time at the beginning and get straight into the main plot. In Ahearne's original tv movie there was a sub-plot involving one of the crooks seducing the gallery owner (the protagonist and later amnesiac's boss) by posing as a potential gay lover for him. It was a pretty clever plot and just having a bunch of people rush in with smoke grenades seems a hell of a lot less subtle.
Vincent Cassel definitely seems likely to be a more convincingly threatening boss man than Neil Pearson was. I'm not entirely sure why Rosario Dawson was picked to be the psychiatrist (since she stands out as the one American actor out of the main roles here), but she's been pretty good in the past and I'm sure she can pull this off. (Strangely when I saw this trailer in the cinema, I don't think I recognised her.)
Where I get a little worried is the scene of a car falling off the side of a building while on fire. That just seems to be taking things way too over the top. :S
Anyway, this might be absolutely brilliant and certainly the original script gives it a hell of a lot of potential. I'm really interested to see how well Boyle manages this.
