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/