3. If Im Not Me, Then Who The Hell Am I?
Central to the plot of Trance is Simons amnesia, which inconveniently robs him of the knowledge of where exactly he hid the valuable painting he robbed. Memory loss is nothing new in the movies. Whether its Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates, Gregory Peck in Spellbound, Matt Damon in the Bourne movies, Harrison Ford in Regarding Henry or Goldie Hawn in Overboard, weve been there, done that, had Stop watching amnesia movies! tattooed somewhere prominent on our bodies. You know, like in that movie where Mike from Neighbours cant make new memories and leaves notes for himself? These movies have a predictable formula and Trance is no different. Typically, our protagonist will experience some sort of head injury or trauma and experience a form of retrograde amnesia where they cant remember events before their accident/injury and will undergo some form of personality change but theyll be able to function completely normally. They never forget how to tie their shoelaces or that social convention demands they wear trousers in public. Its always: Where did I put that priceless painting? In Trance, James McAvoy is smacked in the head with the butt of a shotgun so hard hes knocked unconscious. That would probably kill him in reality or at least cause a depressed skull fracture and likely a cerebral haemorrhage. Then he gets HIT BY A CAR! And other than forgetting what he did with the stolen painting (oh, and a murder he committed), HE SUFFERS NO REAL LASTING ILL EFFECTS! No months of rehab, no lasting damage. No one ever takes a smack to the head in a movie and ends up a drooling mess. Except for Harrison Ford in Regarding Henry who went full retard. Often the hero will have some form of latent talent theyve forgotten that suddenly reasserts when theyre in peril. Quite often theyre a super assassin like Jason Bourne, Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight or the Governator in Total Recall. Towards the end of the film, theyll normally undergo another trauma or take a smack to the noggin that magically restores their memory leaving them a wiser, better person. Normally when confronted with their previous lives and misdeeds, the characters cling to the new, nicer, caring, sharing persona theyve created. And there lies one of the many problems with Trance. Turns out the only even remotely likable character in the film is a violent, jealous, wife-beating obsessive with a sexual fetish for depilated vulvas whos inspired to go on a kill-crazy rampage as soon as he starts to get his memory back. Which makes it kinda harder to sympathise with his plight. That and Danny Boyles been trying to make idiots of his audience for the previous hour and a half.