Two Sultry, Dusky Women: Trance &
The Place Beyond the Pines
I noticed three similarities between these two films:
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Both feature amateur thieves and the theft itself isn’t really the main point of the plot.
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Each film has a sultry, dusky woman as the object of desire.
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There’s a place in each movie where you just wanna say out loud – Where the f!*k is this going?
TRANCE is director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) latest offering. Here’s his description of the film:
Trance is part heist movie, part Amnesia thriller, part femme fatale Noir. Binding together these disparate genres is a story of a charismatic hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) hired to dig into the fragile subconscious of a fine art auctioneer (James McAvoy) in an attempt to find a priceless painting: a Goya that he has stolen but stashed he knows not where following a violent assault at the hands of his criminal associate (Vincent Cassel) in the aftermath of the heist. A film that seems to be about a stolen painting but is in fact about stolen memories, Trance uses hypnosis to journey into the mind and explore ideas of identity, madness and perception.
The femme fatale Noir plot twist is passably clever, despite a few holes. Although, I think I would have preferred a more avaricious motive, but I can’t really say more without spoiler alerts.
The femme fatale Noir plot twist is passably clever, despite a few holes. Although, I think I would have preferred a more avaricious motive, but I can’t really say more without spoiler alerts.
When seeing a movie that deals with the mind, you rather expect it to be trippy at times. Trance is no exception, you’re often not sure if certain scenes have actually taken place or is it something one of the characters has been lead to think? This effect although at times confusing, helps to create the atmosphere of a hypnotic trance. In fact, I had very weird dreams the night I saw this movie. I kept waking up, but then wasn’t sure if I was awake. The next morning I worried that maybe the film had a subliminal message hidden within the frames. Perhaps anyone who sees this movie and is highly suggestible, will all meet up in the middle of a field one night and wonder why we’re there!
The Place Beyond the Pines is directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine (click for T&T review) a 2010 Film Fest Darling and one of Tinsel & Tines most read posts. Based on this, the fact that he’d be working again with Ryan Gosling, add in my hometown boy crush Bradley Cooper and you should have a recipe for a great movie. Unfortunately, I think Cianfrance tried too hard to do something “Out of the Box” but wound up “Jumping the Shark”.Great start to the film, Luke (Gosling) tatted up, black t-shirt, walking through a carnival; soon we find out he’s a caged motorcycle stuntman, traveling with the carney. Then you see sexy Eva Mendes, no bra, waiting for him, asking if he remembers her name. He does, it’s Romina. It seems they hooked up the last time the carnival was in town, which had to be a year and nine months ago as he discovers he has a son, Jason.
Despite the fact that Romina has come looking for Luke, she’s moved on in her life, now living with a new guy (Mahershala Ali) who’s taking good care of her, her mother and her son. This lets Luke off the hook; yet he decides he wants to put down roots, be her man and raise his son. Problem being a moody, desperate, determined “Ryan Gosling” always spells trouble!
If only this story, expanded to include Luke and Romina’s first encounter, was the entire movie. But no, it’s a movie in 3 Acts, which feels like a 10 hour mini-series. Where Luke’s story ends, Avery’s (Cooper) begins. Avery is a married cop with a 1 year-old son. He’s from a wealthy family, passed the bar before joining the force. He’s not down for the whole dirty cop thing going on around him, headed up by who else? Ray Liotta. Yet, Avery’s not against taking them down for his own advancement.
You expect Avery’s story to intersect with Luke and Romina’s plot, but no, it’s completely it’s own narrative, until the third act which takes place 15 years later and involves both Luke and Avery’s sons. This too could be it’s own movie, two teenage boys connected through the sins of their fathers.
I wanna give Cianfrance credit for presenting a different framework for a movie. He and co-writer
Ben Coccio take the piece almost to a Shakespearean level. Or like a book read in its entirety without a screenplay, filming an entire saga. I say I wanna give him credit, but I can’t, this storytelling device is just ponderous. There are however, some good scenes and themes along the way to The Place Beyond the Pines.
Food in Film Moment: Luke – “What kinda F’ing house are you running with no Ice Cream?”
T&T’s LAMB rating: Trance 2.5 out of 5 / The Place Beyond the Pines 2.5 out of 5
Philly Film Blog
tinseltine
Tinsel & Tine provides year-round free promotion, sparking conversations and awareness, celebration and reviews of the movie industry - from local indie shorts to international films/filmmakers, to studio driven movies/moviemakers. Mixed with a spotlight on Philly Happenings. #MiniMovieReview #PhillyCalendar
3 Comments
tinseltine.com
Hi Readers,
Just thought I'd post the comment continuation of our conversation that took place on Tinsel & Tine's facebook page:
Hannah: olive is actually very light. its an undertone. Olive is an undertone on the skin. A person can be fair with olive or yellow or red undertones. Fair isnt only people with pinkish skin.
Women of color isnt always an appropriate term to use either. Because if you look at white in the US,its defined of people of middle eastern,european,north african blood.
even many fair skinned african americans/mixed people take offense to that word. My friend teaches at Howard Uni and once did a remarkable piece on that term!
eva isnt considered dusky in any sense. Amongst latinos or Europeans.
I understand you want to celebrate women in film, but to lump people in the same category to up numbers isnt appropriate.
thats like me saying dark skinned people are excepted in hollywood,just because megan fox or sogia vergara have roles.
1. thats not true because neither of them are dark
2, that takes attention away from the really dark skinned/duskly girls. if you even google dusky you wont find eva, but you will find carribean,african american and darker toned desis.
so dusky isnt relative. Even amongst african americans…eva is nowhere near dusky.
Tinseltine said:
Thank you. I can see you are very well informed when it comes to race and skin tone. I won't pretend to be. I'm sorry if my use of the word "dusky" to describe Eva Mendes offended you, I wrote it from a good place, so that's what matters to me. By the way, have you seen either movie?
Just wondering if anyone else has an opinion on this matter? Please keep comments conversational and polite. Thank you:)
tinseltine.com
Hi Hannah, Thanks for stopping by T & T.
I'm sorry you took offense at my description of Eva as "dusky". I feel it's a relative term, like "fair" or "olive complexion" there's a couple of different shades within the hues.
My main point is that we are seeing more and more women of color in mainstream movies with larger roles and this is something that I wish to celebrate!
Hannah Tijani
Eva is in no way "dusky" she is very fair in complexion, within all standards of the world. Using the tern dusky is offensive to real dusky women. please edit this page,thank you