T2: Trainspotting

This review may contain spoilers!

I was skeptical if Trainspotting even needed a sequel but Danny Boyle and the cast deliver a beautiful film about living retrospectively and becoming a prisoner of the past. I would give T2: Trainspotting an 8.5/10.

This film carries on almost perfectly from where the last Trainspotting left off, we're given great insight into the lives of Spud, Mark, Sick Boy and Begbie twenty years on from their drug deal turned betrayal. What I found so fascinating about this film is that while it's a story about the addiction of crime and drugs it's also about four men who are trapped in their past. I really appreciated how no one had ever really moved on from the events of Mark's betrayal and that even Mark himself hadn't exactly changed as a person. This film is a really fun ride where friendships are tested, reforged and destroyed forever, the impending conflict between Mark and Begbie being the climax of a film that delights in small pleasures but implodes over the sins of the past. The cinematography is not merely stunning it is probably some of the most inspired work that I'll see all year, Danny Boyle has a great vision and he uses all his years of experience in crafting the style of this feature. The editing for the movie is so smooth and aids the pacing a lot, I loved the freeze frame motif that had been used in the original making it's way in as well. The score for the film is a very powerful piece but it is the soundtrack that makes the feature, being a character unto itself; the somewhat controversial song "No More Catholics Left" sung by Ewan McGregor is a fine memorable piece of satire.

Ewan McGregor, who played Mark Renton, is a really great protagonist for this film; he's quite compassionate and reserved when first we see him but after a short while you can see that manic energy and addictive quality that made his role so memorable all those years ago. Ewen Bremner, who played Spud, is a really quirky role that you can't help but like; I think Bremner made the figure of Spud a lot more tragic in this film especially through how he retold old stories. Jonny Lee Miller, who played Simon, has matured the character into a wannabe criminal mastermind who is constantly scheming up pipe dream after pipe dream; Miller is such an angry character at first but it shows a lot that he bonds with McGregor's role so quickly in such a short span of time. Anjela Nedyalkova, who played Veronika, was a great addition to the leading cast; Nedyalkova presented a role who was as desperate for success and validation as the other leads but who also had a kinder nature underneath. Kelly Macdonald, who played Diane, was great to see back in her role as McGregor's former love interest; Macdonald really matured her role in a way that was believable while still maintaining that charming air about her.

However the best performance came from Robert Carlyle, who played Begbie. This is such an aggressive scheming role who has very little left in him but intense rage after the events of the first Trainspotting. Carlyle really does a good job of bringing all the resentment and loathing Begbie has towards Renton and the rest of the world to the forefront of his performance. He's a high energy character who can go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye. Yet the real triumph of Carlyle's performance was making a role like this so redeemable in the eyes of the audience; you see how he reconnects with his family at the end of the film in a bid to escape being like his own father, likewise in his final confrontation with Renton you can hear just how much he regrets what he feels he has no choice to do. A tragic figure and a performance by Carlyle that will stay with me for a long time.

The film does take a little while to get under way at first the film just feels like a 'where are they now?' piece, which was quite a simple formula and not very exciting to watch. Furthermore throughout the film subplots tend to be forgotten about or very suddenly put on hold, it felt like while the main story was strong there wasn't always clear direction on how to edit in all the other plotlines throughout.

Shirley Henderson, who played Gail, is a character with no substance in this film bar that which other roles give her; it would have been nice to see Henderson actually engage with Bremner so I feel the film let that role down a bit. James Cosmo, who played Renton's Father, had very little to contribute to this film; Cosmo merely gave some pointed exposition about the history of the town in McGregor's absence and that's about all he provided. Pauline Turner and Scot Greenan, who played June and Frank Junior respectively, were very quiet aspects of the Begbie subplot; often they felt overshadowed by Carlyle and didn't have a great deal of screen presence themselves.