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The original Trainspotting was the little film that could, shot over seven weeks for a minuscule three and a half million pounds, it changed the shape of British cinema. It was a cultural phenomenon, it’s one of the most quotable British films to this day, with a soundtrack that has become intimately linked to scenes they’re featured in - I mean seriously, try to listen to Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life” and not think of Ewan McGregor running down the street. It’s the film that launched the careers of a lot of great British talent: we got ourselves a Jedi, a Bond villain, a Sherlock and a… and a… well Ewen Bremner has had a steady career. We got one of the most consistently inventive and energetic directors who continues to delight with each film. So with so many good things going in it’s favour, the big question is, why the f*ck would you make a sequel to what is essentially lightning in a bottle?
Now it’s fair to be skeptical, very rarely do you find long-delayed sequels that actually pay-off, let alone a sequel with a twenty year gap. The last time we had a sequel with that big a gap that included the original key cast and original directors, we got Dumb and Dumber To. Thankfully Trainspotting 2 is the antithesis of the crappy sequel curse.
Set twenty years after Ewan McGregor’s Renton up and skipped town with the Skagboys’ money, he returns to Edinburgh and is compelled to reconnect with childhood pals Sick Boy and Spud, whilst avoiding the walking sociopath with a moustache Begbie. Ewen Bermner’s Spud is still a heroine addict, whilst Johnny Lee Miller’s Sick Boy snorts cocaine like it’s an Olympic Winter Sport and the ever terrifying Robert Carlyle’s Begbie is an escaped convict robbing houses and trying to achieve an erection. To tell you anymore would be spoiling this really well crafted tale of reconnection and redemption.
The one thing I will tell you though is that if you’ve read the original book that served as the sequel to Trainspotting then this film is so far removed from the book that it’s almost unrecognisable. The film does not include the character of Nikki, there’s no scam involving producing a hard-core porn film and Spud is not writing a detailed account on the history of Leith. Sick Boy still runs his aunty’s pub, Renton spent time in Amsterdam and the film is peppered with lines and references to moments from the book throughout, but very little else to connect this film to the book. Personally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the book, so I’m really glad the film went in the direction that it did, it feels like a more natural and logical progression for these characters than what occurred in the 2002 novel.
Despite the differences to the novel, fans of the book should get a lot out of this film. The characters are the same as ever, if just twenty years older and only slightly wiser. The same pop-culture references are infused in the DNA of the film but with a more social media conscious tweak that also acknowledges the gentrification of the changing face of Edinburgh. Of course whether you’re a fan of the film or books, one thing everyone should love is how well they have integrated footage from the original into this film - be it young actors posing as the original cast or projecting scenes onto bare walls behind the cast or just simple cuts to those scenes; one thing that really needs to be acknowledged is how well the original footage has been restored. Even though it is clearly scenes from the original film, it looks like it was shot with the rest of the footage.
The biggest driving force behind this choice has to be director Danny Boyle. It’s amazing to think that after kicking off a career in film back in 1994 with Shallow Grave, Boyle has continued to produce challenging films that are creative, stylised and energetic. He just has a way with composing shots that work for maximum impact - whether it be using shadows to add another layer to the story, or the constant shifting of the camera’s point of view to increase the intensity of a moment, or just simply slicing out the occasional frame of a shot to add to the skittish nature of the characters; Boyle has never compromised on his vision for a film and as an audience, we are all the better for it. With a larger budget and more seasoned talent, Boyle and the cast really let go and give us a really visceral story where every inch of the frame is dripping with visual cues and emotive metaphors.
So look, if you love these characters then you’re bound to love this film because the characters just live and breath the streets of Edinburgh in equal parts funny, scary, touching and tragic. One minute you can despise a character and then the next you are genuinely hurting for that same guy you were wanting to punch in the face a second ago. Twenty years might seem a long time to wait, but T2 Trainspotting is definitely worth the wait.
T2 Trainspotting gets Four and a Quarter out of Five Stars (or Four and a Quarter Iggy Pop vinyl sessions in your childhood room)
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