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Trainspotting (1996)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
A visceral, numbing and exhilarating trip, Trainspotting visits every station on the roller-coaster ride of drug addiction. The hit of choice for Renton (Ewan McGregor) and his friends, in their dilapidated Edinburgh squat, is heroin. Amongst the litter of abuse lie Sick Boy (Johnny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner) and Alison (Susan Vidler), while her baby Dawn crawls among them. One of the three is the father but they're to wasted to know or care. Watched over by their dealer, Mother Superior (Peter Mullan), the subtle charms of H are explained -- a high a thousand times better than your best orgasm and never having to care about anything. However, in one of those periodic emergences from the euphoric haze, Renton decides that he's going to kick the habit. Stocking up on tinned soup and valium, Renton prepares to barricade himself in his room until the sweats are over, although (just before this self-imposed isolation) he decides on a final fix. In desperation he buys a couple of opium suppositories, nearly losing them down the toilet in a particularly surreal sequence, to ease the way.

Visiting Tommy (Kevin McKidd), a good friend who is surprisingly drug-free, Renton is feeling clean and horny (his sexual appetite, long subdued by drugs, is making a comeback). Nicking a video of Tommy and his girlfriend Lizzie (Pauline Lynch) making love, they arrange to go clubbing. Everyone is there, including their mutual psychotic friend Begbie (Robert Carlyle), and even Renton manages to go home with a lady. Unfortunately when he meets her parents, the next morning, Renton discovers that Diane (Kelly Macdonald) is only 14 and off to school! With so much pressure, Renton is soon back on drugs and from here on events spiral way out of control. Tommy is left by Lizzie, who suspects him of selling their "special" video, and decides to try heroin. Dawn dies of cot-death, revealing just how pathetic this group of addicts is when they immediately turn to the needle to cope. Finally, Spud and Mark are caught shoplifting with Spud being sent to jail.

The conditions of Renton's probation are that he stays on a rehabilitation course, using methadone. The lure of one final hit is too much to resist though, with the unfortunate result that he overdoses. His parents come to pick up the pieces, as they've done before, and confine him at home, forcing Renton to undergo cold turkey. The hallucinations soon appear, with various "ghosts" of friends only adding to the misery. After this, Renton decides to escape and leaves for the bright lights of London. With his new-found love of life, Renton soon gets a job as an estate agent and starts working properly. The dust of Edinburgh isn't that easy to clean off though and trouble soon appears in the form of Begbie, who's on the run after an armed robbery, and Sick Boy, who plans on becoming a London pimp.

The casual joys of drug addiction are grippingly portrayed with a combination of excellent acting, impressive camera-work and atmosphere. However, to a clear head, the absolute depths to which this group of addicts will stoop is enough to put anyone off trying heroin. Renton, and his friends, are convincingly self-centred (in the extreme), untrustworthy and trapped in the vice of their overpowering need. A nice touch is the distortion of certain sequences, mirroring the mental turmoil of the user, such as the near-fatal overdose of Renton; the walls of a grave-like opening, which is simultaneously womb-like and welcoming, move ever closer together above him. It's also worth mentioning that the character of Begbie is extremely well acted, with Carlyle projecting an aura of intense, insane violence wherever he goes (and he's not even on drugs). The team which gave us Shallow Grave have once again hit the jackpot with a story which is unavoidably Scottish and yet universally relevant. Power, energy and lightness-of-touch make Irvine Welch's novel palatable to a wide audience, but also more degrading via the dreadful contrasts which are exposed.

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