Choose life or choose heroin?

Rating: 10/10 (20 October 2004)

1996's "Trainspotting," an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's cult novel about heroin addicts in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a deliriously funny and imaginative ride through the pitfalls of addiction. However, the movie never glorifies addiction; if it did, we wouldn't see the grim aftermath of so many instances that are otherwise avoidable if its characters chose to remain sober.
The film wastes no time in establishing that the main characters are addicts, each of them shooting up in a rundown apartment. They are a loose group of fellows, with Renton (Ewan McGregor), violent drunk Begbie (Robert Carlyle), Sean Connery-enthusiast Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), the nerd-like Spud (Ewen Bremner), and life-chooser Tommy (Kevin McKidd).
What we get for 90 minutes is unrepentant drug use from the leads and the resulting depravity. We watch the funny/grim aftermath of wild sex romps for each of the main characters while some time down the road, we're treated to visions of dead babies and the inevitable overdose or death.
But despite all these grim underpinnings, there is a faint glimmer of hope, and that hope rests within our emotional connection to Renton, who knows he has a problem and tries to correct it, despite the influence of his friends.
We watch as Renton painfully goes through withdrawal, the horror that he witnesses, and the aforementioned dead baby crawling on the ceiling.
"Trainspotting" is an intricate and funny masterpiece of what it's like to be an addict and on the loose. It's no wonder this movie was such a hit here in the United States.
10/10