Some movies try to mess with your mind, using editing tricks and interesting filming techniques to confuse and beguile. Memento told a story about the lies we tell ourselves in form of memories, and how easy it is to fool oneself. Time travel films like Primer and Donnie Darko relish hideously complicated internal mythologies that practically require repeat viewings to grasp the plot and determine the answer to “what happened?” Most people have forgotten something important; it’s a common problem anyone can empathize with. But some things can never be understood and some people are not relatable.

Trance is the new movie from director Danny Boyle, and is essentially the classic story of a “heist that fails.” James McAvoy stars as Simon, an employee of an art auction house that gets involved with a bunch of criminals, led by Franck (Vincent Cassel), who are trying to steal an extremely valuable painting. But when Simon can’t remember where the artwork was hidden due to some head trauma, the criminals must turn to hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to help recover the suppressed memories. But things aren’t quite so simple. What is the memory that’s really hidden? What other past histories are yet to be unveiled? And who’s playing whom? Classic thriller plot threads, to be sure. And the addition of the hypnosis conceit really adds to the confusion (but don’t get caught in whether or not it makes sense — you’ll be there all day).

This movie tries real hard to mess with your heard, making you guess at what’s real and what’s a false memory. It becomes about identity; are you fooling others or just yourself? The heist plot itself is relatively straightforward and standard, it’s these hypnotic tricks that are the entire point. If you took out all the little bits of trickery, it’d be a decently acted, well shot, simply told thriller of little consequence, if still pretty enjoyable. It’s the ambition of the movie that’s the problem: when it tries to push boundaries and explore heady concepts, it gets lost in itself. There’s a lot of reliance on the subtle performance of Rosario Dawson juxtaposed against the desperate, manic James McAvoy and disturbingly smooth Vincent Cassel. Sure, sometimes the nudity gets a bit gratuitous, not serving the themes nearly as much as the film hopes it does. Instead, it’s just there, another facet of the movie’s basket of tricks and treats.

Taken as a fun, meaningless thriller, it moves quickly and has enough twists to satisfy a casual viewing. Just pretend that the movie isn’t trying to be deep at all and you’ll be happier.

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