Trainspotting Review
by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT lucent DOT com)August 7th, 1996
TRAINSPOTTING
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: A vivid look at Edinburgh's community of heroin addicts. The film is a LOST WEEKEND for
the 90s with a little bit of crime film mixed in.
This is a decent little indecent film, perhaps
neither as hip nor as funny as it was intended to
be. It cannot live up to its current hype.
Rating: +1 (-4 to +4)
It has all been done before. This is a superficially non- judgmental look at four friends who are heroin addicts. A fifth friend, Begbie (Robert Carlyle) is clean--at least of heroin--but is just on the near side of psychopathic. However, you have only to step back half an inch to see that this really is a morality tale about just how bad life can be when heroin becomes your closest friend. Much of this film is strongly reminiscent of THE LOST WEEKEND. Recently we saw much the same approach in BASKETBALL DIARIES. In TRAINSPOTTING the addicts' lives are seen through the eyes of Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor), marginally the least hooked of the group of addicts. Also in his group are the rather sodden Spud (Ewen Bremner), a Bond film enthusiast trying to be suave, Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), and the retiring Tommy (Kevin McKidd).
For the first three quarters of the film there really is not much plot. The viewer does get a grand tour of places the viewer does not want to be. This includes a side tour outside and inside "the worst toilet in Scotland," dunking for drugs. This particular treat is a sterling example of the kind of in-your-face (sometimes nearly literally) humor that packs this film. Some really is funny, but much is more a successful attempt to churn the viewer's stomach. It is humor that is more depressing than funny. As the film opens Mark, an Edinburgh junkie maybe in his early 20s, has determined to get off drugs. From there basically all that really happens is that he gets off, he gets back on, he gets in trouble with the law and he gets off again. At some point Mark decides that he wants to get away from drugs and junkies, only to be pulled back as surely as Al Pacino is in the "Godfather" films. Along the line he gets himself the first serious girlfriend he has had time for in a while. Toward the end of the film a little more does happen, but not a lot. Plot is not TRAINSPOTTING's strong suit. Texture and background is really what it is all about. It takes the viewer inside the life of a junkie and that it does very well--perhaps just a spot too well. These are people you do not want to invite into your home and the film gives good reasons why not. But much of the wacky behavior and even some of the dating jokes have little to do with the main premise of the film unless to show that in some ways the main characters are not a whole lot different than they would be off of drugs. The humor is never quite as wild or as hip as intended. These are people who are disaffected from being Scots--as they describe it, the colony of a bunch of wankers--and find escape in hypodermic needles.
American viewers may have a problem making out some (perhaps much) of the dialogue. TRAINSPOTTING uses Scottish slang and the dialogue is spoken with a heavy Scottish accent. Generally I was able to make out about 80% of what was said. My average was a little less with the character Spud, but toward the end of the film it become clear that even people in the film are not always sure what Spud is saying. Irvine Welsh's novel TRAINSPOTTING--the title is a hobby that never actually gets mentioned in the film--was a bestseller in Europe and the American publishers had to push up the date of its publication here. It seems they had planned an edition to coincide with the release of the film, but so many copies of were being brought in from Europe that the publication had to be moved forward to compete. The book was adapted to the screen--leaving a bit too much out some say--by John Hodge. Danny Boyle directed and Andrew Macdonald produced, as they did for the film SHALLOW GRAVE.
TRAINSPOTTING has its creative moments and sometimes it can be funny, but the viewer should be prepared for a downbeat experience and should expect to find himself some places he would never go of his own accord. As with the film CRUMB, there is a happy ending in which viewer escapes the theater and the people with whom he has just spent an hour or so of his life. I expected a film more original than this one was, but I give it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
