Trance (Danny Boyle, 2013)

James McAvoy plays an art auctioneer who gets mixed up in a heist perpetrated by Vincent Cassel's gang. He stashes away the painting they're after and then forgets where it is following a blow to the head, so the crooks force him to see a hypnotherapist to regain his memory. The film soon forks off into a succession of rapid twists and turns as reality comes under doubt. The casting is strong enough to retain interest, but the plot itself gets irritatingly garbled and obviously begs to be viewed again to make full sense of it, unfortunately without having an adequately rewarding pay-off to make this a worthwhile undertaking. Diverting, then, but considerably short of the elan and sense of purpose of Marnie, Inception or Memento, to name some notable precursors in amnesia-driven mental discombobulation.

5/10