La momia (Trance)

Beautiful looking and sedately handled, but immensely muddled independent art house horror feature by writer / director Michael Almereyda. Kind of similar in style to his film "Najda" four years earlier, which I don't think so highly of (other than the excellent soundtrack that accompanied it).

Nora and Jim (who are alcoholics) along with their son leave America and head to Ireland to visit Nora's grandmother. Despite the advice of their doctor not to go, as Nora one night with Jim got on the drink and she ended up falling down some stairs leaving her with a minor concussion. When getting there, she meets her uncle where he takes her down the basement to show her a decomposed body which he believes to a centuries old druid witch. Could this be the connections to the headaches and visions plaguing Nora's mind, as she'll find out when the witch is revived.

"Trance" is a touch better, but still engulfed by similar problems and nonetheless keeps the same positives. Again this atypically brooding fable is not for everyone, but it managed to hold my attention and I found the direction less concerned with its distracting artsy mechanics (than say in "Nadja")… although they're still evident. There are some delirious images, consisting of jaded visions rocking the main protagonist's mind. These stylised passages hold a certain arresting, if haunting charge. However this is when it's not in its nauseating head spin of mangled ideas. While the plot has a slight structure and little narrative drive, it's stretched out by its unfocused fabricated episodic developments with its dry, upfront and moody trimmings. Every one of these characters / including the witch / monster of the piece are damaged, but still humane vessels in the search of something to make them complete. Secrets are buried, to only be awoken.

It's messy and meanders, but strangely alluring like caught in a drunken, abstract state. I put it down to the performances. A breathtaking Alison Elliot (in dual roles) and narky Jared Harris acquit themselves to their lead roles. Lois Smith holds strong. Christopher Walken looking rather weary goes about things in a sober, but underlining twisted manner. Also Jason Millar's inclusion is merely a throwaway cameo with an amusing line. Almereyda's slickly calculative direction is switched on, making good use of the lush backdrop consisting of a stunning beach line and the Gothic interiors of mansion that the enclosed action mostly takes place in. Intimate photography is sharply engineered and well-intended. The brilliant soundtrack is notable with it tunes (that are perfect choices), and the music score is clinically alienating but whimsical in flight.

A very interesting story. I think this film could have been so much more with a bigger budget. In my opinion, this was a very marketable movie idea with not enough financial backing. I would have liked to have seen more of Christopher Walken and even more chilling special effects throughout. The dialogue was a little dry, but was saved by the great cast. This movie is worth seeing at least once. It would have been better to see on the big screen but was only released direct-to-video in the U.S.

I watched 'Trance' on the strength of Almereyda's arty vampire flick 'Nadja' and the presence of Christopher Walken, a great favourite of mine. I shouldn't have bothered. The movie starts off interestingly enough with the New York sequences, and the all-too-brief appearance of the late Jason Miller ('The Exorcist'/'The Ninth Configuration'), but as soon as they hit Ireland, it all goes rapidly downhill.

To add insult to injury, Walken's role is basically nothing more than a glorified cameo! Bigger than 'Sleepy Hollow' say, nothing to get your teeth into. I've liked Jared Harris in the past, in 'Happiness' and yes, 'Nadja', but he's quite poor in places here, as is the main female lead who I wasn't familiar with.

Overall, mediocre and unsuccessful in holding your attention. I actually nodded off at one stage, which is always a warning sign! A major disappointment when compared with the potential Almereyda showed with 'Nadja'. Even 'Cherry 2000' is better!!

A good cast and they do their best with what they're given, but the story makes no sense, the characters' actions are inexplicable, and there are too many moments of unintentional humor, as when a man is killed by being pierced with pieces of a phonograph record or when they get the witch drunk to a hip hop beat and then hit her over the head with a bottle and she grabs her hostage and pouts off. The scene when the two witch and her victim (played by the same actress) are in the house together sets up like a 3 Stooges routine, and the plot begs the question: if the witch wants to possess this other woman's soul, why doesn't she just do it instead of leading these people on this elaborate chase? Not to be missed is Christopher Walkin's eyeglasses and his automotive explanation of the afterlife (paraphrased): "The ancient Egyptianas - they wee materialists. They expected the body to last through eternity, like a used car that you souped up. But the Druids, they knew you couldn't drive in the afterlife. You had to get out and walk." Huh? The ending is absolutely indecipherable. Seems like they just ran out of film.

I came to this for two reasons, both of these reasons were people.

The director made one of the best "Hamlets." This is a non-trivial achievement. It was not particularly adventuresome visually, but it really worked for me. How in the world he turned Julia Stiles into an effective Cordelia is a wonderful mystery. Bill Murray turned inside out. Wow.

The lead actress here blew me away in "Wings of the Dove," and does every time I see it.

The effect of this on me was unexpected. It is not generally liked, because not much transformative happens. Christopher Walken has a small role in the middle is oddly bad. If you think of it as a genre film, it simply fails because it touches the bases from unexpected but uninteresting directions and sometimes not at all.

But I liked some elements of the story. Nominally it is a "Curse of the Mummy" sort of thing.

However, you can approach this as a "Naked Lunch" sort of thing. We have the guy who is the writer. He and his wife are substance abusers of a high degree. Her name is Nora, a name that carries huge associations from James Joyce. Predictably, his name is Jim. Together they booze into an alternative story, in Ireland of course, situating deep in the bog.

Its about sex, magic and story. Each of James and Nora has a doppelganger. In Jim's case it is his son, also Jim who is our designated observer. In Nora's case, it is a magical being with hypnotic sexual powers. Much is made of the relationship between this sort of addictive sex and creation. Natch.

The guide through this wonderland is a newly pubescent girl named Alice. There are characters that surround these, but they are there only to explain things to us. Walken's character has the most overt and ridiculous lines.

So you can see that the shape is pretty well imagined. And in fact it maps almost directly to the sort of thinking used to reimagine an film Hamlet as a film student. But that shape is wasted on what in all other respects is a bad movie. Nora here is not redheaded except in the most sexually charged scenes where a red light is used.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.