The Scots who brought us "Shallow Grave" are back with a new film
that's quickly becoming all
the rage in Europe and the U.S. "Trainspotting" is a surprisingly
light-hearted, unsentimental
look at life and death on heroin in Edinburgh, Scotland. A never-ending
series of follies and
failures drive (or don't drive) the life of Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor)
and his so-called
friends as they lie, cheat, and steal their way into states of drugged oblivion.
Trying
occasionally to quit their addictions to heroin, the film's heros/antiheros
deftly avoid the
nomer "pathetic" by being hip, witty, and extremely good-looking.
More mainstream, and less
haunting than "Shallow Grave", "Trainspotting" is strangely
light-hearted and funny in light of
its subject matter. "It's a wee bit Hollywood," said Irvine Welsh
of the film, after seeing his
debut novel translated to the big screen. Welsh's novel by the same title
is more disturbing
than the film, but does have a certain light-hearted humor to it that the
filmmakers captured
successfully. Ewan Bremner's performance as the sheet-staining Spud is hilarious.
The film's
score involves a little too much techno-music, but the dialogue is great
once you get the hang
of the Scottish accent.
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