MYST #3: Trainspotting

Like everyone else, I do everything I can to squeeze every last drop of worth-while content out of Netflix Instant. So, through searches and top fifties, I found Trainspotting starring Ewen McGregor. Knowing him only as a Jedi, I gave the film a chance.

Trainspotting tells the story of Renton (Ewen McGregor), a Heroin addict. Surrounded by his friends and fellow junkies(Sick Boy, Tommy, Diane, Begbie, Spud). In the film, which takes place in Scotland, Renton stumbles through this humorous and dark comedy that spans about a year of his life. Renton feels his Heroin use is by choice, using it as an avenue by which he can pass the painful and depressing struggle that comes with a real life. Openly disgusted by the greed and monotony of the employed, we follow Renton as he, seemingly in control, moves from high to high and crime to crime, all in an effort to forget what surrounds him. 

This isn't a movie for your mother. Framing addicts as good people in a misguided situation, the film holds drugs rather than people accountable for the mistakes and actions made in day to day life. But it doesn't glorify the lifestyle either. Facedown in vomit isn't a surprising way to find a character as they meet their end in the film. The chosen bliss doesn't dance around the consequences, or the pains of withdrawal.

As seen above, the scenes in the film don't always take place in a concrete world. We see Renton's view of the world both philosophically and physically. As a result, rooms stretch into gigantic hallways and shrink into claustrophobic cubes. When Renton is high, the world is calm and still, even needles are soft and nonthreatening. But when he's suffering withdrawal and the world is a blur, it's the the same to us.

In the world we perceive as Renton's reality, pure or peaceful things are powerless, and so that it also how they're framed. His parents are weak and fail to dominate a shot. His friend's baby is happy and helpless, surrounded by disease, and is only shown in the context of the filth it lives in. As is seen below, at one point in the film a kitten lives with Tommy, and is only ever subject to its surroundings.

As a whole, Trainspotting confused me. Which it was meant to. The morals were gray and the decisions made by characters out of greed were often pitied rather than chastised. Addictive personalities thrived in both illegal and legal cultures. The disgust an outsider feels about another group was only ever valid until they had a taste of the greed. Heroin wasn't evil, but money earned either at a job or on a street was.

Through all the upsetting, crazy confusion a full emotionally complex film develops. I had trouble relating to and sometimes understanding its Scottish characters, but it communicated exactly as it intended. As a result, I give it 5/5 Pounds. I didn't enjoy it as much as either of the movies I've already reviewed, but that wasn't always its goal. It was meant to make me laugh and then feel sick, which is exactly what it did. Also, don't watch this movie if you can't look at needles.