Trance

This Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind meets British Gangster mash-up was brought to us by British Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony) with this is mind, the film entirely held its own and love it or hate it you can't deny it was captivating to say the least.

The beginning segment is simple enough to follow as we are guided by forth wall narration by protagonist Simon (James McAvoy), a Fine Art Auctioneer with a gambling problem. Suffice to say that one can help solve the other, and to clear his debts he gets involved with local French gangster Franck (Vincent Cassel) to steal the painting Witches in the Air by Francisco Goya. 

Though everything is going to plan and despite his training at work where they're taught "Don't play the hero, no art is worth a human life" Simon can't help himself. 

The second segment shows that Simon has double crossed Franck, but the beating to the head he took leaves him forgetting what he did with the painting. Franck encourages Simon to pick a hypnotherapist to help recover the memory of where he hid the painting. Enter Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) who sensing that Simon is in danger does her best to help him and thwart Franck and is band of merry gangster men.

The final third of the film is where things get really complicated as hypnosis, lust, reality and death all become one and the same with no anchor to stop the roller coaster of events that ensue.

Though the plot was full of twist and turns it was a relief that they kept to only three central characters, and a small detail that I found effective was their accents. McAvoy's Scottish, Cassel's French and Dawson's subtle American back dropped against the harsh London Gangster scene just seemed right.

Though the film started out with a lot of obvious turning points, it more than made up for itself with the subtle hints and intricately woven threads between the real world and the one of hypnosis. Definitely one for the know it alls and the ones who like to have their minds blow, and even if you fall into neither category, it should still be given a trance.

Oz The Great and Powerful

Taking inspiration from the series of books by L. Frank Baum The film was nothing short of visually spectacular as we our guided on a journey of clarification as we discover the tale of the man behind the velvet curtain.

Oscar "Oz" Diggs (James Franco) is nothing short of a trickster when it comes to his smoke and mirror carnival magic, that and the way he leads various naive women on soon lands him in a world of trouble. A terrible storm one day provides an accidental escape route from his life of being a borderline crook, giving him the chance to explore, experience and hopefully change his path.

Side Note: A small but appreciative element of the film was the transformation between a 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio and respectively from Sepia to Technicolor. 

Transported through the eye of a tornado to the world of Oz, Oscar is expected and soon learns that he is the heir to the land.... and it's massive fortune. The tightly attached string comes in the form of defeating the Wicked Witch who is terrorising the land for want of control. Oscar is accompanied on his mission by an indebted flying monkey named Finley (Voiced by Zack Braff) and an Orphaned China Doll (Voiced by Joey King). No mission would be complete without a few twists and turns, half truths and betrayals.

With Vampires Sparkling and Werewolves being nothing more than giant fluffy dogs, then ethereal beauty is only to be expected of the Witches of Oz; Theodora (Mila Kunis) her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Willaims). But an important fact to remember when watching this film is that; Beauty may only be skin deep but evilness runs to the bone.

Overall the film had the right amount of humour that wasn't kept solely for the titular character to dish out, a range of human, animal and CGI characters that just seemed natural and have I already mentioned how ah-mazing the picture quality was in terms of colour crispness?  

It didn't seem as though a lot of thought when into the cause of certain circumstances involving the Witches and respectively, Oz himself making events seem a little melodramatic. I suppose this could be due to the exposure and various conceptions we have to the world and land of Oz through The Wizard Of Oz (1939) and the Broadway musical Wicked (2003). Undoubtedly I wasn't the only confused one when it came to mentally matching up these prequel characters with who they would later become in the stories we all know so well.....Major Headache.

The Silver Linings Playbook

Bradley Cooper plays the role a Bipolar man whose life is suddenly unravels, leaving him no choice but to movie back home with his Betty Crocker mother and Superstitious father. He and Jennifer Lawrence's Tiffany Maxwell, a young woman with problems of her own find solace with one an other through circumstance and mutual benefit.

The Silver Linings Playbook teaches you to hold on to something, anything that keeps you grounded to the real world despite what other people think of your methods. Hopefully sooner rather than later you will find yourself holding on to more than one silver thread that keeps you tethered to the need of your existence. 

This film wont necessarily make you teary eyed but it provides a range of characters that you can't help but to appreciate and admire. Silver Linings and all.