Movie of The Week: T2 Trainspotting (2017)

Twenty years has gone by of the release of Trainspotting (1996), the British black comedy drama directed by Danny Boyle. The movie was nominated for Academy Award for original screenplay (John Hodge), starring  Ewan McGregor (as Mark Renton) Ewen Bremner (as Spud), Jonny Lee Miller (Simon), Kevin McKidd (Tommy), Robert Carlyle (as Begbie) and Kelly MacDonald, and it’s ranked 10th on the Top 100 British films of all time list by British Film Institute.

The movie is based on the Irvin Welsh’s novel of the same name. The plot evolves around a group of heroin addicts living in a depressed area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The movie also touches the subject of urban poverty in Edinburgh. It is a great movie with a horrific subject- drug addiction and everything that comes with that addiction: sickness, death, grief, ruined friendships and relationships.

The reviews by the movie critics were great: This films does not glorify drugs it glorifies film.-Neil Jeffries for Empire; Trainspotting is a singular sensation, a visionary knockout spiked with insight, wild invention and outrageous wit.- Peter Travers for Rolling Stone; etc. 

 

https://mubi.com/films/trainspotting

Rupert Hawksley (Telegraph.uk) says that Trainspotting was a film that made a whole generation think about their choices in life, referring to the opening line of Ewan McGregor: “Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career… But why would I want to do a thing like that?”.

The sequel of the movie was released on on 27 January 2017. During the 20 years, Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) chose a life and a career. Starting with taking all the money of the scam that he planned with his friends, he left Scotland and didn’t come back.

There is a lot less of the hectic atmosphere of the first sequel, and a lot more nostalgia and introspection. The main characters are now middle aged, surprisingly alive (since they are all addicts and in the same place where left 20-years ago) and still lost in life. Renton (Ewan McGregor) is the only one who recovered from the drug- abuse and lived normal life in Amsterdam. He reunites with his old friends, meeting again with the drugs, sadness, suspicious behaviors and middle age crisis.

Does this sequel was worth of 20 years waiting? Did we expected something different from these strangely likable characters or we expected to see them failed in life?

Check out the movie and feel free to share your comments and reviews with us!