TRANCE (United States)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: This is the kind of film you used to see in the 60s from small studios like Tigon. An American couple finds themselves in a huge old Irish house with a mad woman stalking the hallways, and, oh yes, a 2000-year-old Druid witch is also running around and shape- changing. Once it gets going it is entertaining but it would be hard to claim it is actually a good film. Rating: 5 (0 to 10), low +1 (-4 to +4)
- Written and directed by Michael Almereyda who directed the vampire film NADJA. - Far less experimental than NADJA but more coherent. - Alcoholic American couple Nora (Alison Eliot) and Jeff (Jared Harris) take young son and visit wife's family mansion in Ireland. - Huge brooding mansion beside the ocean. Nora's grandmother is near 90 and senile. Her uncle is nearly blind, but he continues his experimentation with a 2000-year-old petrified body found in the bogs and now in the basement. - Nora and Jeff are trying to give up alcohol, or so they tell themselves. Very flip as if always drunk. - Irish accent is hard to understand at times. - Harris's acting style is very much like Christopher Walken's. - Myth of Earth and Sky: At the beginning of the world there was just Earth and Sky and they greatly loved each other. Then they were separated. When it rains the Sky is trying to touch the Earth.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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