Trainspotting 2



 

Hello dear reader, 1996 was an odd year. Nintendo released the N64, the Spice Girls had their first number one, Great Britain only managed one Olympic gold medal in Atlanta, Ask Jeeves was let loose upon the internet and Danny Boyle released his follow up to Shallow Grave. Trainspotting was unleashed into the world at a time when Britain and Brit Pop were at riding a wave of popularity. England’s football team looked impressive, although normal service has most definitely been resumed. Cool Britania was a word that even politicians could get away with using and no one had even heard of Simon Cowell yet. Based on the novel by Irvin Welsh, Trainspotting was a visceral gut punch that did not care who it offended or how it did it. An emotional rollercoaster that not only left its mark in society but helped make household names out of some the stars. What also helped sear this film into the collective memories of those who saw it and society was the soundtrack that accompanied it. Iggy Pop’s Lust For Life is used in what has become an iconic opening scene to the film and this is only really bettered by the use of Underworlds Born Slippy, SHOUTING LARGER, LARGER, LARGER…

Trainspotting 2 is set twenty years on from that iconic pillar of cinema and it returns with the original cast, location and the original director. For those of you keeping score you’ll remember that the first film finishes with Mark, Ewan McGregor, heading off into the sunset after having ripped off his friends, Simon aka Sick Boy and Begbie, played by Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle respectively and relieving them each of four thousand pounds. Money they had earned from a particularly successful drug deal. The only friend he doesn’t betray is Spud, played superbly by Ewan Bremner. Partly because he feels sorry for him but mostly because Spud wakes up just as Mark is leaving. It’s safe to say that Simon and Begbie are none too pleased to discover that their friend has decided to relieve them of the burden of spending all of that money and as with so many modern day fairy tales, they all (well most) lived unhappily ever after.

Well that’s what you’d have been expected to believe but wouldn’t you know it, they decided to revisit the world of drugs, drink and depravity in the form of a sure to be money making sequel. Never again would anyone have to wonder, whilst sat around the table at the local end of the world pub or during friendly discourse at the ‘aren’t we great’ dinner parties held by those in the know, what that cheeky little scamp, Mark, did with his twelve thousand pounds. Did he decide to choose life, a career, a fucking big television or low cholesterol? Or for that matter a starter home, leisurewear and matching luggage, a three piece-suite on hire purchase or DIY and wonder who the fuck he was on a Sunday morning? No, everyone will now be able to put rumour and conjecture to bed and sleep safe in the knowledge that these burning questions are well and truly done and dealt with.

T2 also starts with another running scene but this time no one is being chased or hunted down. This time a treadmill replaces the urban outdoors and although it’s still Mark doing the running, its calories leaving his body as opposed to chemicals entering that he’s concerned with. The problem Mark has, however, is not something that you can out run. The slow burning fuse of guilt is what is permeating through his soul and the realisation that he needs to return home to try and make amends. So, before you can say one way ticket from Amsterdam to Edinburgh, please, Mark finds himself at back in the land of tartan biscuits and shortbread kilts, ready to address his demons and more importantly his former friends.

This leads us into an extended ‘where are they now’ montage. Simon has diversified and now finds himself running a pub that’s has such a low number of regulars it might as well be called The Hermit Arms. He also has a nice little side-line in blackmail, which basically involves a concealed video camera, an eastern European woman that he effectively pays to be his girlfriend, a hotel room and unsuspecting victims being filmed doing things that their respective partners and employers would not be overly pleased about. Spud is basically still Spud. He now has an estranged family and a son who he cares about deeply but the fact that he’s been unable to get or stay clean over the past two decades means his life is always about two steps past implosion and about three feet under the water line. Begbie, funnily enough, is in prison. Which given is rage and violence issues that were more than prevalent in the first film, will not come as a surprise to most. But fear not, just like those good old boys, The A-Team, he promptly escapes from a maximum security prison, whilst being treated in a not so maximum security hospital. Mark has to deal with these three throughout the course of the film and even though he is ultimately seeking forgiveness, the trails he has to go through to get it are hard work and testing.

Trainspotting 2 is a good film but it’s nowhere near as hard hitting as it predecessor. Although there are some scenes that are hard to watch, including an attempted suicide that gets very messy, it does feel like a sanitised version of what it could have been. Instead of turning it up to 11 again, it’s almost as if Danny Boyle decided that 7 would be a far more acceptable volume level, because you know, you wouldn’t want to upset the neighbours or wake up the sleeping baby in the flat upstairs. The first film grabs you by the scruff of the neck and says ‘whether you want to or not, you’re coming on this journey with us and you better bloody enjoy it’, whereas this sequel just feels like it’s safe and comforting. If it were a piece of clothing it would be a well-worn cardigan with leather elbow patches. Something got lost along the way and I don’t know if it’s supposed to be because everyone is now older and allegedly wiser but the chaos and delirium that was ever present twenty years ago, seems to be on Prozac. Don’t get me wrong, I do like this film and would happily watch it again but it does have some awfully large shoes to fill and to be honest, by comparison it’s just not in the same league as its precursor.

I’ll finish off with a few little niggles that bugged me. Firstly, Begbie is in essence written and indeed acted as though he is a human cartoon character. Everything is over the top when it comes to his interactions and behaviour. Secondly, the soundtrack is a little too respectful of what has become before it and just reuses some on the same tracks but tries to be clever with it by remixing them. Lastly, the updated ‘Choose Life’ speech and how it’s delivered just seemed like it was just put in there as a clever little exercise in viral marketing and merchandise sales. All in all I’d say it was a solid three out of five stars. Sometimes sequels work and often improve on what has come before. All this sequel did was remind me that although we all probably wanted a second movie, we probably all didn’t want this one…

Twitter Review:
Mark, Spud, Simon & Begbie. Been there, seen that, bought the t-shirt.
#ChooseLife

Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/?ref_=nv_sr_2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsozpEE543w
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/t2-trainspotting/review/

Lion



 



Hello dear reader. Pull up a chair, park bench or beanbag and make yourself comfortable. What follows is my review of Lion and its ever so slightly sombre overtones. Now, I should say that prior to its release Lion had really done much to win me over. I knew of its existence and if someone had pointed a gun at my head I would have been able to tell you which actors were in it. At least when it came to the main leads but in all honesty its subject matter didn’t really interest me at all. I can’t give you any specific reasons why either. I like India, I like Australians (to a point) and I’m a big fan of films that insert ‘based on a true story’ in their opening credits. All I do know that when it came to Lion both of my feet were firmly planted under the table on the apathy train and were not for moving. I am happy to report that I did go to see it and I can say without fear of contradiction or reprisals that I did actually enjoy it, much to my surprise.

So what is Lion about? Well, it’s a tale of a young Indian boy who, through a series of poor choices and bad luck, finds himself lost on the streets of Calcutta and a long way from home. He is then adopted by an Australian family and its then as an adult we watch him try and discover who he is, where he’s from, how he can find his Indian family and how he can reclaim his Indian heritage.

At the start of the film we are introduced to a small boy called Saroo. At no more than five or six years old he’s already helping his older brother Guddu to try and bring some money into help his single mother. Saroo manages to convince Guddu to let him come out with him one evening. Unfortunately the brothers have to separate and although Guddu tells Saroo to stay where he wakes up later, at the train station where he left Guddu, alone and with no sign of his brother.  Afraid and feeling isolated Saroo goes searching for his brother but after a vain exploration of the surrounding area he ends up on an empty train, exhausted and needing to rest. When he wakes again he finds himself locked inside the train, which is now moving and heading for destinations unknown. And that’s how simply Saroo’s life changes. In the space of twenty four hours he’s travelled over a thousand miles and not only is he unsure of where he is, Saroo, being very young and without the security blanket of his mother & brother, isn’t sure of the name of the village that he lives in either.

Lion is split into two parts. The first third of the film centres on the young Saroo, played, despite his young age, with maturity and precision by Sunny Pawar. It’s not an easy third to watch at times, especially knowing that is based on what actually happened to him as a young boy and what he had to do to survive. Saroo, despite the fact that he’s still in the same country he was born in, in effectively a stranger in a strange land. Not speaking the same language and not having his support network or anyone looking out for him, are just some of the things that just barely scratch the surface of what he has to deal with. The only thing that is a constant and that he can rely on, knowing that it will never change, is that life is hard and will not do him any favours. After some close calls and run ins with some less than commendable people Saroo finds himself in an orphanage and being looked after some staff that don’t really have his and the other children’s best interests at heart. However, it’s whilst at this orphanage that he is picked for adoption by an Australian couple, Sue and John Brierley, played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham respectively. The last two thirds of the film deal with Saroo, now played by Dev Patel, coming to terms with his new life in a new country and his struggle to reconnect with his past. Knowing he has a brother and mother in India and that somewhere within the confines of its borders is the village he grew up in is what basically drives Lion forward. The feeling of wanting to belong and feeling accepted by a culture and a way of life that seems to be ever so slowly slipping away from him, one day at a time.

As I said at the start, Lion wasn’t really a film that I wanted to see and I suspect it will be the same for others too. Its subject matter by definition means that you know there are going to be things you watch that will upset you and Lion isn’t a story that’s been given the Hollywood ‘happy ending’ treatment. There are spoilers I could get into here but I won’t as knowing what you’re about to watch would lessen the emotional impact and water down the journey that Saroo goes on.

Overall Lion is a film that you will remember for a long time. Dev Patel once again proves that he deserves to be a leading man and can carry the emotional weight of this story, squarely on his shoulders and it can be only a matter of time before he is considered a member of the A-List crowd, when it comes to actors. I am reliably informed that the Australian accent Dev uses through the film is pretty near close to perfect and is at times better than Nicole Kidman’s. Lion at its core is a story about loss and understanding how you fit in with the world. A story about being driven almost to the point of self-destruction in an attempt to work out who you are and why you are and the sacrifices you have to make in order to find inner peace. Lion isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but at the same time it isn’t a film about pity and how hard life can be at times. Ultimately Lion is a story about a journey, both physically and mentally and it’s about wanting to belong. It’s not a perfect film, it does have its flaws but I think that’s the point. Art imitating life shouldn’t be faultless and regardless of the journey you go on, it’s where you call home that counts…

Twiiter Review:
Life is may well be a journey but you need to know where home is.
#LostAndFound

 

Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNI9o06vqo
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/lion/review/