REVIEW: TRAINSPOTTING (1996)
TRAINSPOTTING
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 8.0
Alternative Scale: ***1/2 out of ****
United Kingdom, 1995
Release date: beginning 7/96 (limited)
Running Length: 1:33
MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, drug use, sex, nudity, violence)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd,
Robert Carlyle, Kelly MacDonald, Peter Mullan
Director: Danny Boyle
Producer: Andrew MacDonald
Screenplay: John Hodge based on the novel by Irvine Welsh
Cinematography: Brian Tufano
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
Next to INDEPENDENCE DAY, TRAINSPOTTING may be the most hyped
motion picture of the summer. Miramax Films, the distributor that
saturated the market with ads for THE CRYING GAME in 1992-93 and PULP
FICTION in '94, has struck again. TRAINSPOTTING, which is based on
Irvine Welsh's cult novel and is directed by SHALLOW GRAVE helmsman
Danny Boyle, became a smash hit in the UK during its run there.
Miramax, hoping for a similar reaction on this side of the Atlantic, has
been shouting from the rooftops, using big, splashy print ads and
chaotic TV and theatrical spots to lure in their target audience. The
danger is, of course, that TRAINSPOTTING's substance will get drowned by
the marketing.
"I chose not to choose life. I chose to choose something else,"
says the film's narrator and main character, a twenty-something
Edinburgh man named Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor), near the outset of
TRAINSPOTTING. In rejecting the yuppie culture of a nuclear family,
material possessions, a paying job, and dental insurance, Renton is
rebelling, but this isn't just the usual disaffection of youth -- it's a
deeper, more pervasive dissatisfaction with a culture he views as sick
and stifling.
Renton's escape is through drugs -- primarily heroin, but really
anything he can get his hands on. He's surrounded by his "buddies", a
group of crooks, liars, and psychos who are even more twisted than he
is. There's Spud (Ewan Bremner), a shy, inoffensive junkie; Sick Boy
(Jonny Lee Miller), a vicious, duplicitous con artist who's obsessed
with Sean Connery; Tommy (Kevin McKidd), a "virtuous" young man fighting
the temptation of heroin; and Begbie (Robert Carlyle), a nutcase who
gets his thrills from beating up people.
TRAINSPOTTING is careful not to present a one-sided view of drug
use. After all, why would anyone use the stuff if all it leads to is
misery and unhappiness? In Renton's words, to get an idea of what it's
like using heroin, "Take the best orgasm you've ever had, multiply by
1000, and you're still nowhere near it." There are no worries about the
problems and concerns of everyday life, just where the next hit is going
to come from. The giddiness of heroin addiction is well-illustrated
during some of the film's early scenes, but it's a euphoria that gives
way to tragedy.
In the end, TRAINSPOTTING has an anti-drug message, but it presents
its case through character studies, not preaching. There are a lot of
gruesome images, some of which are presented in an oddly humorous
context. For example, take Renton's headfirst dive into the "worst
toilet in Scotland" or Spud's reaction when he wakes up in soiled
sheets. In portraying the cycle of addiction -- using drugs, trying to
get clean, then giving in again -- TRAINSPOTTING recalls DRUGSTORE
COWBOY and THE BASKETBALL DIARIES. Boyle's style, however, is
distinctly his own. This is a kinetic movie, where everything,
including the camera, keeps moving. This isn't an examination of the
Scottish drug culture from the outside looking in, it's one from the
inside looking out.
For one hour, TRAINSPOTTING is as compelling as any motion picture
to be released this year. It's exciting, energetic, thought-provoking,
and never lets up. Unfortunately, during the film's last third, the
focus starts to shift, and, in doing so, it blurs. Suddenly, after
battling addiction for sixty minutes, Renton and his friends become
Scotland's answer to Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS -- a group of
inept thieves committing the "dodgiest scam" in a lifetime of petty
crimes. There's mistrust, betrayal, and bloodshed. But, while this
material has some appeal, it's debatable whether it belongs here. For a
segment like this to really work, it needs more time and attention than
Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge are able to give it. As such, the
subplot seems almost like an afterthought, taking the film away from its
darker, more compelling material and opening the door to a hopeful, if
ironic, ending.
The overlong epilogue aside, TRAINSPOTTING is one of the summer's
most arresting motion pictures, and not just because of the offbeat
visual style. There's nothing new or unique about the story, but it is
presented in a manner that reinforces its immediacy and impact. The
film makers were determined to make this a street-level view of
addiction, not some "voyeuristic Oxbridge graduate's perception of these
people". In that goal, they have succeeded, and, while TRAINSPOTTING is
not without its faults, it offers a powerful portrait that all of
Miramax's overhyping cannot diminish.
- James Berardinelli
e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net
ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin