Film
Trainspotting
- Director
- Danny Boyle
- Certificate
- 18
- Running Time
- 94 mins
It’s not as good as the book, but the surprise is that Irvine Welsh’s sprawling novel about the lives of a bunch of Edinburgh junkies was ever filmed at all. Trainspotting doesn’t have a simplistic attitude towards drug addiction; it merely reflects the attractions and consequences of it through the hazy existence of a gang of mates: Renton, the intelligent, cynical smackhead who narrates; Spud, a hopeless but harmless junkie; sleazy ladies’ man Sick Boy; hill-walking Iggy Pop fan Tommy; and opinionated psycho alcoholic Begbie.
This may not seem like a great recipe for classic comedy, but Trainspotting extracts some hysterically funny moments from the squalor of the junkie lifestyle. The nightmarish aspects of the story are chillingly effective too. Rarely has a movie mixed and matched horror and humour to such a risky degree. It goes a bit flabby in the middle, but for the most part crackles with raw energy, exuberant performances, vivid imagination and a highly effective soundtrack.
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