Trainspotting: A Review

Directed by Danny Boyle and staring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald, this is probably the best of British Dark Humor.

Based on a novel by Irvin Walsh and Boyle/McGregor's second film together (shallow grave was the first), trainspotting focuses on a group of heroine adicts living in squalid conditions in Edinburgh, Scotland. Actually the film's main focus is on Renton's (Ewan McGregor) attempt to quit heroin and his interactions with the other fascinating characters; Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) who is very popular with the girls and a goldmine of opinions and facts on the career of Sean Connery, Spud a poor excuse for a man(Ewen Bremner) who memorably attends a job interview while high on speed, Begbie (Robert Carlyle) who plays their psychotic, drug free friend who never misses a chance to inflict brutal violence on anyone who irritates him, and even those who just happen to be around him at the time.

As Renton makes his attempt to quit drugs the story unfolds and a get rich quick scheme is revealed...let's buy drugs from Russian sailors and sell it to London gangsters! As you may imagine with a bunch of drugged up louts and a psychotic madman things don't quite go to plan and mayhem ensues.

The movie is not just about drugs though. It is a great and comical look into the life of drug users and society in Edinburgh's underbelly. There are moment's that will make you cry with laughter and moment's that will make you cry from sadness, moment's that will make you jump and moment's that will make you cringe in disgust.

All in all if you watch this movie with an open mind you will come away not just chuckling but more informed than when you start. A great movie but not for the young or weak of stomach.