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
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
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