Trance
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: April 5, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMar 21, 2013
The film's not merely content with being a twisty psycho-thriller. Boyle and Hodge expertly tweak and tinker with your sympathies, and the characters you initially peg as heroes and villains may not be in the same place by the time things wrap up. Read full review
90
TimeRichard CorlissApr 8, 2013
A devious mind game, Trance is also the most entertaining smart movie so far this year. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithApr 4, 2013
This exhilarating brain-twister is a nonstop visual, aural and intellectual delight, steeped in movie conventions and yet fizzing with freshness. It’s what happens when film noir goes out to a rave. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMar 26, 2013
Boyle's filmmaking style has a marvelous rhythm that weaves pop sensibilities into fluid and persistently exciting narrative experiences; he shakes these ingredients like colored sand in a jar, leading a fascinating degree of discombobulation. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 4, 2013
A frisky, feisty heist flick with brains and charisma, the movie may make a few errors, but they’re forgotten in the blink of an eye thanks to all the twists, turns and close shaves. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanMar 23, 2013
Though it rings ever so slightly hollow as cool shades into callousness, this exercise in sexy suspense and brain-scrambling mystery is a dazzling, absorbing entertainment which shows off Danny Boyle’s mastery of complex storytelling and black, black humour. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyMar 22, 2013
Sprinting to the edge of preposterousness and back, this deliriously entertaining day-glo noir of fried brains and blown fuses denotes a director at the top of his game. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 11, 2013
If you can look past the sputtering conclusion — or the pseudo-intellectual banter about memory, modern art, and other assorted nonsense — what you'll find is a brisk, breezy, style-heavy crime flick that happens to be one of the most purely entertaining movies Boyle has made in a long time. Read full review
75
NPRStephanie ZacharekApr 4, 2013
Trance really belongs to Dawson and Cassel. When Dawson's Elizabeth steps onto the scene, you may be instantly convinced — without the aid of hypnosis, even — that she's surely the most effective hypnotist on the planet. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 4, 2013
Dawson digs deep and nails every nuance, making the dizzying suspense resonate with raw emotion. She is, in a word, electrifying. Even when the wheels come off the too-busy plot, so is the movie. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonApr 3, 2013
Narratively, Trance is questionable, but Boyle and Hodges whisk past all the unlikely developments with enough verve and style to keep audiences from thinking too hard until after they’ve left the theater. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 1, 2013
For all its plot trickery, mind science and relationship square dancing, Trance doesn’t have the emotional tug or technical pizzaz of Boyle’s best films – “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Trainspotting” or “127 Hours.” Read full review
75
Slant MagazineMar 27, 2013
The film draws out Danny Boyle's less dazzling commercial side, not to mention his penchant for whirling excess. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 11, 2013
Yes, in the end, Trance is pretty manipulative. But again, with Boyle behind the camera, it’s a more satisfying experience than it might have been. If we’re going to be manipulated, it might as well be by a master. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 4, 2013
I floated in and out of states that included suspense, surprise, delight and shock, all of them adding up to steady-state enjoyment. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 1, 2013
To like Trance as much as I did, you have to revel in the senseless showmanship — in watching Boyle indulge his taste for cinematic flight, in this case teasing you with the old “Is this real or a dream?” number so artfully that you don’t care that much about the answer. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 21, 2013
A trippy variation on the dream-within-a-dream movie, Boyle’s return-to-form crimer constantly challenges what audiences think they know, but neglects to establish why they should care. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 5, 2013
Boyle loads his movie with so many snazzy effects that we lose sight of what it all means – if anything. His showoffiness confuses. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 11, 2013
Individually, Dawson and Cassel each generate plenty of screen heat, but, together in that one bedroom scene, their chemistry is downright explosive, so much so that it seems we have strayed into a whole different movie, and dearly want to stay there. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyApr 11, 2013
Because Trance is principally about the thrill of the ride rather than the inner lives of the riders, it lacks that outlaw humanism specific to Boyle films such as "Trainspotting," "Slumdog Millionaire," and "Millions." In other words, it's an ingeniously built automaton, sexy as hell, and devoid of a heart. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 11, 2013
For a while, Trance had me guessing, and more or less hooked. Then the violence, motivations, double-crosses and fantasy/reality tangles became tedious. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 5, 2013
The visionary filmmaker's psychological thriller weaves a too-complicated tapestry. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 4, 2013
The movie is never boring or uninteresting, but I viewed it from a detached perspective, unable to become involved because I didn't really care about any of the three main characters. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 12, 2013
Dawson, who to this point has largely built her career playing supporting characters, seizes the opportunity to stand center-stage, all but taking over the film. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 4, 2013
For all Mr. Boyle’s labors Trance principally comes off as a showcase for his brio, a spirit that animates all his choices, visual and otherwise. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 12, 2013
The wrinkles between reality and illusion soon become irritating. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 11, 2013
There’s a little too much happening in the film’s violent, frenetic conclusion, which involves the retrieval of fractured memories, the confession of betrayals and so many narrative loops within loops that the film’s big reveals never make perfect, deeply satisfying sense. Maybe it’s not supposed to. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 11, 2013
With Trance, story becomes just another element in Boyle’s commercial pop-Cubism, and the results are nearly fatal. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 10, 2013
I suspect a second viewing would uncover more information embedded in the mise-en-scène; had Trance – tonally a jumble and disorienting to the point of distraction – rewarded the audience with the pure perfection of a Keyser Söze-like reveal, I’d be more inclined to make the return trip. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 4, 2013
Boyle is genial, eager, and prolific, and his effusion has ignited films like "Trainspotting" and "Slumdog Millionaire," yet for every blaze that excites us there has been another that burns itself out without leaving a mark, let alone a scar, on our emotions. So it is with Trance. [8 April 2013, p.88]
50
Village VoiceZachary WigonApr 2, 2013
Trance packs many reveals, and the guessing game of who's who and what's what continues throughout. But with its terribly campy setup (hypnotherapy and gangsters? One's inner child and murderous showdowns?), Trance could have gotten some mileage out of comedy Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 21, 2013
Danny Boyle has great and plainly evident fun adding twists and curves and tunnels and endless style to his modern London noir Trance, but he makes so many left turns that the film turns in on itself rather than going anywhere. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 4, 2013
It starts out like a house afire, but by the time it's over we're the ones feeling burned. A slick heist tale with more twists than sense, this is one movie that ends up outsmarting itself. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 2, 2013
The film plays like something Boyle could kick out in his sleep, all his supercool devices listlessly deployed in service of a mediocre wet dream. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 21, 2013
Trance is a disappointment: a strident, chaotic, frantically overcooked film with an almost deafeningly intrusive ambient soundtrack. There is some embarrassing, eyeball-swivelling acting from the male leads, and the elegance of the film's premise is quite obliterated by its crude and misjudged violence. Read full review
35
Film.comDavid EhrlichApr 1, 2013
A shapelessly propulsive mess of pop psychology and poor drama. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 3, 2013
I love a good mind-bender, but it's getting more common these days to see thrillers that don't so much bend your mind as chop it, smash it, and place it in the Cuisinart. Trance, the new film directed by Danny Boyle is a high-brainiac art-world thriller that wants to do nothing more (or less) than give your head a majorly pleasurable spin. Read full review
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