# Trainspotting (1996)

### reviewed by
James Brundage

    Trainspotting

    Directed by Danny Boyle

    Written by John Hodge

    Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh

Starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, and Kelly MacDonald

    As Reviewed by James Brundage

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a starter home. Choose dental insurance, lisure wear and matching luggage. Choose your future. But why would you want to do a thing like that?

Thus begins (with severe editing) Trainspotting, the film that took Britian and didn't even dent America. Why it didn't take America is still a mystery to me. I think, perhaps it was too liberal for those conservative wankers. But then I remember, I dunna know a soul who cares about shite like that. Perchance it was too funny for those with a stick up the'r arse. Then I remember that it was made by the brits, who classicly have a stick up the'r arse.

Then methinks its just that the bloody wankers can't see past a bunch of Scottish slang.

Yes, that would be the reason that I've just sounded like I've took a few too many pints down at the pub. The fact is that, between having a British director (Danny Boyle), a Scottish writer (John Hodge) and being based on a novel that could serve as a dictionary for Scottish slang (Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting"), Trainspotting doesn't hold much appeal for the average moviegoer.

But, you know what? I don't particularily like the average moviegoer. Why? The average moviegoer is someone who makes a lot of money for a lot of bad movies and then makes the penny-pushing tight-arses at the studio come out with even more bad movies, which, for me, are like the trials of Job.

The fact is that Trainspotting is one of the finest British films I have seen n ages, and I see a lot of British films. Trainspotting takes us on a wild ride with five heroin adicts as they go on and off the drug and then make a deal that may make them rich. In particular, it follows Mark "Rent-boy" Renton (Ewan McGreggor), a full-time heroin adict who spends the first half of the movie taking us on a drug ride funnier than any Cheech and Chong film and then spends the second half of the film making us actually realize the massive mistake he has made by getting on heroin in the first place.

In the first half, we get pleanty of jokes and some plot development as Renton and his four mates (Spud (Ewen Bremmer), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and Franco (Robert Carlyle)) spend there time basically going out on the town of Edinburgh. They spend their days getting high and their nights at the pub. Sick Boy and Renton decide to quit heroin, and, in order to celebrate, they go out on the town where Renton falls in love (or at least slleps with) with a wonderful piece of jailbait named Diane (Kelly MacDonald's breakout role). At the same time we get to see two other sex scenes turn to crap (literally and figuratively) as everything possible goes wrong with them.

The hour and a half movie pretty much equally divides us between making us laugh and making us step back and look at the tatterred landscape that remains of what was once a promising life. It paints the portrait of a character who, if he ever had native morals, has lost them a long time ago and now only lives for the moment.

Not for the weak of mind, heart, stomach, or any other bodily organ, Trainspotting is about the most liberal film you will ever find on drugs. It shows both the good and the bad about heroin... giving it a fair trail and still executing it. Not for conservatives, not for people who can't get past the huge Scottish accent that hangs over the movie like a thick fog, Trainspotting is a film for that one other group: independent film fans. You guys, please, watch, enjoy, get the message and give a message (through your money) so that they make more movies like it.

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