Danny Boyle follows up “Slumdog Millionaire” and “127 Hours” with this juicy, mind bending thriller. He and his screenwriters have crafted the kind of twisty tale we don’t see very often nowadays. James McAvoy plays Simon, a London auctioneer who teams up with art thief Franck (Vincent Cassel, as good as always) to steal Goya’s masterpiece, “Witches in the Air.” But a hit on the head makes Simon unable to remember where he hid the painting. Now it’s up to hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to help him remember. Clearly, there’s more than meets the eye here, but Simon is the last one to figure that out and the one who ultimately has the most to lose. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go further into plot. But you can’t deny the fact that “Trance” rewards the attention it demands. And the heat generated by the cast is something worth mentioning as well. Boyle’s vision demands and gets uncommon depth and subtlety from the actors. McAvoy and Cassel are sensationally good. And Dawson, as our hypnotherapist is . . . well, let’s start with dynamite. Some people may find this twisty and twisted psychological thriller arty and pretentious. I find it arty and provocative. Whichever way you go, you won’t be able to resist it.

Rating: 3/4