Trainspotting (1996)
Directed by Danny Boyle

Film Review

Choose a life.  Choose a job.  Choose a family.  Choose a future...  Danny Boyle's follow-up to his highly original debut feature Shallow Grave (1994) was destined to be one of the most talked about British films of the decade, not surprisingly as it dealt with that most controversial of subjects: drug addiction.  Whilst Trainspotting was condemned in some quarters for its perceived glorification of the hedonistic drugs lifestyle, it was generally well-received by the critics and soon came to be regarded as one of the most important films in British cinema.  The film was made on a shoestring budget of 2.5 million dollars, but it took around 72 million dollars worldwide at the box office, making it the most successful British film of the year.  Trainspotting provided a welcome shot in the arm for the British film industry, just when it needed it most.

Screenwriter John Hodge and director Danny Boyle took Irvine Welsh's novel of the same title and turned it into the most vibrant cinematic trip of the decade, a heady mix of black comedy, urban realism and pop culture that is as hilarious as it is harrowing.  Far from promoting the taking of drugs (as some of its detractors have claimed), Trainspotting offers a brutally uncompromising account of how drugs can really screw up your life, and makes the alternative - an uneventful little life with a job, a family and a crippling mortgage - appear infinitely more attractive.  The experiences of the main character Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor at his absolute best) are like something out of The Exorcist, a gruelling dark fantasy whose surreal highlights include diving head-first into the filthiest public toilet in Edinburgh and being attacked by a zombie baby that can crawl on ceilings.  Renton is not the most sympathetic of protagonists (he survives by haplessly bringing destruction to everyone around him, killing his friendships to save himself) but we're with him every inch of the way as he tries to escape from his personal Hell, battling against predatory teenagers, psychopathic bullies and a pal with a seriously scary Sean Connery fixation as he does so.

Trainspotting is a world apart from the kind of grim social realist drama that is perhaps more naturally suited to its depressing cocktail of urban deprivation, youth alienation and drugs addiction.  Whilst the film never lets us forget the bleakness of its subject matter, its approach is startlingly vibrant, packed with colour, humour and vitality - watching it is like being hit by a massive rush of adrenalin.  The relentlessly upbeat tone of the film brings a horrifying edge to some of its more shocking scenes (a baby lying dead in its cot through neglect, a pal dying alone and in squalor from an HIV illness, the main character's chilling near-death experience), and it thrusts shards of the cruellest irony into its attempt at constructing a happy ending from the mountain of human misery that precedes it.

Trainspotting is shamelessly provocative throughout, both in what it shows and how it shows it.  Whilst its approach is light-hearted (in a darkly twisted, vomit-inducing kind of way) it doesn't flinch from shoving our noses into the sordid realities of life as experienced by those who end up stoned and desperate on the social scrap heap.  Having dragged us to the abyss and shown the harm that hard drugs do to individuals and society in general, the film ends on a note of wry optimism - it is possible to break out of the cycle of hit and craving, although not everyone is able to make The Choice.  Trainspotting is not only one of the most compelling and stunningly original British films of the 1990s, it is also one of the most socially relevant.

Film Synopsis

Mark Renton is a streetwise Edinburgh lad who chooses drug addiction over an ordinary humdrum life.  Not for him the spirit-sapping routine afforded by a job and a normal family life.  He and his best mates  - Sick Boy and Spud - see no future for themselves and seek escape through the needle of a syringe.  When Mark tries to give up drugs, he craves another kind of fix, and ends up in bed with a fifteen-year-old girl, who threatens to report him to the police if he stops seeing her.  Another of his friends, Tommy, turns to hard drugs when Mark inadvertently ruins his life by stealing a personal pornographic video.  After being arrested for shoplifting, Mark agrees to submit himself to a drugs rehabilitation programme.  The craving for hard drugs is more than he can bear and a short time later Mark is an inch away from death when his bloodstream is hit by a near-lethal mix of methadone and heroin.  When Mark finally manages to kick the drugs habit, he learns that Tommy is a full-blown addict and is HIV positive.  Disillusioned with his old life, Mark moves to London, where he finds work as an estate agent.  Just when he feels he has turned over a new leaf, his old friends show up and force him to come in on a potentially lucrative drugs deal.  Escape is harder than it seems...