Choose T2 Trainspotting, choose a film that was 20 years in the making, that doesn’t try to be what it used to be but has rather evolved, that succeeds and fails, but none the less entertains.
Choose Danny Boyle, the man who brought us the Beach, Slumdog Millionaire, Steve Jobs, 28 Days Later and, of course, the original Trainspotting. Choose possibly the greatest British director of his generation, a man who was capable of bringing the words of Irvine Welsh to life; in a way that few others could have, who has created a unique way of paying homage to the original story, by replaying it through eyes of the hopeless character Spud Murphy.
Choose Ewen Bremner; the heart of this film. The man who acted in a stage version of Trainspotting before it took the world by storm on the big screen. The man who gives this film its edge and makes it less predictable than sequels often tend to be. Choose his immense ability to draw us in, and make us laugh and cry for spud simultaneously.
Choose Ewen McGregor (Mark “Rentboy” Renton), Johnny Lee Miller (Simon “Sickboy” Williamson) and Robert Carlyle (Francis “Franco” Begbie) the three warring factions in this film; whose determination to scheme, backstab, double cross and even kill each other guides this film through their winding paths of mutual and self-destruction.
If for nothing else choose Begbie; whose ferocious energy, quick wit and unpredictable temperament make every scene he’s in thoroughly enjoyable and unmissable. From the second he shows up in Sickboy’s bar, the fear he stirs in his old friends is enthrallingly palpable.
Choose a film about friendship, betrayal, love, loss, addiction and the destruction it causes, poverty, wealth, sectarianism, humor, the state the world is in today and the way the poor are beaten down and discarded, choose a film about Edinburgh; a landmark city from is forgotten urban wastelands, to his its majestic roaming moors.
In the words of Begbie: “Don’t be a doss *#*t!” choose T2 Trainspotting.
PaulHyland. 