T2 TRAINSPOTTING (2017) ✭✭✭✩✩
20 years later, do you still have a lust for life?
“Hollywood Come In, Your Time Is Up” was the memorable review quote from the iconic Trainspotting poster, which fought for wall space alongside Pulp Fiction’s in most teenager’s bedroom walls in the mid-1990s. Danny Boyle truly broke through with Trainspotting (1996), a few years after his well-received debut Shallow Grave (1994). The modern classic, about a group of young Scottish heroine addicts, based on author Irvine Welsh best-selling novel from 1993, arrived during a time when ‘Cool Britannia’ was still awaiting its crescendo. Maybe that was in 1997 after Tony Blair became Prime Minister and Spice World: The Movie debuted? I’m only half-joking.
A sequel to Trainspotting has been expected for a very long time, especially once author Welsh wrote follow-up novel Porno in 2002, but the falling out between Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle (the latter reneged on a promise to cast him in The Beach) meant it never seemed likely to happen. Then, it was revealed that Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge weren’t huge fans of Porno, and even after star and director buried the hatchet it was Boyle’s belief the cast hadn’t aged “badly” enough for a story involving those same characters to feel plausible 20 years later. And to be fair, McGregor still hasn’t, which is briefly commented on during T2 Trainspotting.
Boyle has never made a sequel before, and it seems like an unnecessary risk for someone whose filmography rarely even repeats a genre. But maybe the challenge of trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice is what got Boyle excited for this, or there was some meta-textual synergy happening with the Oscar-winning filmmaker wanting to go back to where it all began — much like Mark Renton (McGregor), who returns to Edinburgh after a few decades in Amsterdam with the cash he stole at the end of the first movie. Uh, spoilers?
Whatever the reason, it’s a relief to discover that T2 Trainspotting (hereafter T2) is a sequel that doesn’t embarrass the original, or retrospectively damage the relationship audiences had with these characters. It’s also nowhere near as memorable, kinetic, or vital, but in some ways it’s more insightful about the human condition. Trainspotting was a bravura assault on the senses, with a visual inventiveness and rapid-fire editing style that wasn’t typical of the time (certainly not in British cinema), and made similar movies look retrograde. Little wonder some reviewers thought it was a sign British film was about to undergo a huge resurgence, which only proved half-true. It certainly turned Boyle into an overnight success, however, and went some way towards McGregor getting a lightsaber.
The 1996 film was a dark and harrowing black comedy, with a strong anti-drugs message. I know some people feel Trainspotting was so energetic and cool that it made narcotics seem fashionable and exciting, but those people must have missed the scenes of Renton going “cold turkey” in his bedroom, or the infamous ‘dead baby’ scene. In 2017, T2 has less to say about drug culture, beyond the fact they’re bad and middle-aged men like Spud (Ewen Bremner) would in a different place if they’d kicked the habit long ago.
The sequel instead has things to say about a more universal concern: ageing. The realisation most people over-40 reach that your best days are probably behind you, at least in terms of physicality and the relatively carefree nature of youth. There was a time when the over-30s had the same existential crisis, but our society seems to be kicking that figure further and further down the street.
T2 is almost entirely about the quiet, uneventful, inescapable passage of time. The loss of things by virtue of existing, and the yearning for things to return to time when things seemed less complicated. A rose-tinted look at the past, certainly for these characters, but memories have a way of filtering out the bad and concentrating on the ineffable feeling of things having been better.
Renton returns to Scotland to catchup with his mates, some of whom now hate him, and there are numerous examples where the present-day’s events latch onto the past. There are welcome flashbacks to the ’96 film that are used sparingly to make a point, perfect recreations of old sets (like Renton’s bedroom, which hasn’t changed one iota), the original’s pulsating soundtrack sometimes creeps into events, we see photographs and videos of everyone as teenagers, and there are even new actors playing much younger versions of the characters. These people, but especially Renton, are haunted by their pasts. They were the best of times, but also the worst of times.
Everyone slots back into their roles very comfortably. I was never particularly attached to the Trainspotting gang, as they represented a crowd I was never part of as a teenager, but it’s nevertheless an emotional experience to see these older guys back together, trying to make sense of how much their lives have changed (or haven’t changed). Boyle brings out the best in them as actors, it feels, with Robert Carlyle especially good as psycho Begbie — escaping from prison, out for vengeance, but getting a decent arc of his own once he realises his teenage son’s not going to follow in his felonious footsteps.
T2 looks incredible, with plenty of the visual invention and wit of the original returning. It cost $18 million to make, compared to the original’s $1.5m, so it’s certainly more elaborate and impressive. But you could also argue the original had more of a homemade flavour that seemed to suit the tone better, but Boyle does a great job making this fit within the same world. It’s bigger and slicker, but still feels of a piece.
And there are some fantastic moment of visual poetry, such as the moment when Spud attempts suicide, which is visualised by him tipping over the edge of a high-rise in a chair and falling to his doom. The same scene also contains a hilariously gross and dramatic pay-off involving a plastic bag and some vomit. But there are actually far fewer indelible moments to match the original, which is a shame, but probably to be expected. The sequel is too beholden to the “masterpiece” that came before, and could never hope to top it, so it’s content to just pay homage and give these characters another twisted adventure together. And for that, I very much enjoyed this scabrous reunion.
Cast & Crew
director: Danny Boyle.
writer: John Hodge (based on the novels ‘Porno’ and ‘Trainspotting’ by Irvine Welsh).
starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle & Anjela Nedyalkova.
