Kat's Film Reviews: Trainspotting

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Trainspotting

I really need to learn this lesson. I can't go to the theater to watch Scottish film; I need to rent them on DVD and put my headphones on. I had the problem with The Full Monty and I should have known better when deciding to go to a midnight showing of Trainspotting. Even though I'd seen it before, I still under stood not a word of what Begbie (Robert Carlyle) said, and barely anything else. I don't know why Scots English is a foreign language to my ears (remind me to tell you the story of my brother and I trying to order food in an Edinburgh restaurant in our youth) and it's a pity because the Scots are excellent filmmakers, as a rule. But a re-viewing of this film pointed out a lack of focus. Is it trying to be more than a horror story of heroin use? Is that advisable? Why the added story of lusting over the high school girl? Or the walk in the mountains, if only to give Ewan McGregor's character the opportunity to wax poetic about his homeland? How does the comedy fit in? As relief? Could be construed as flippancy. Sure, the dive into the toilet is hysterical as a description of need, but its juxtaposition with the depressing scenes is a bit off-putting. For a harsher film that shows the actual depth of despair associated with drug use, rent Requiem for a Dream (ick, ick, ick, but perfectly icky). I do like the ending, though -- the sarcasm implicit in the final scene points out that wanting the usual things (a car, a house, a family) isn't for drug addicts, even those interested in reforming their lives.

year: 1996
length: 94 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/combined

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