Well done, but short of its potential...

Rating: 8/10 (4 June 2001)

An excellent creative team, fabulous cast, great story...so what went wrong? A bit of a loaded question, because the film was still fantastic, even though it missed its mark. What went wrong is that the film could never compare to the book...and although I'm probably a bit biased due to an adoration of Irvine Welsh's writing (well...most of it;), the film really screwed a bit up too much to be forgiven. Having the original screenplay, I admit that it was partially due to time constraints...they cut a lot of scenes out that would have improved the film. But there was a lot that just shouldn't have been done.
Let's start with Diane. Diane is unforgivable, as she's actually two characters combined into one. In the book Dianne was the high school girl Rents ended up sleeping with, but the girl he ended up with, who wrote to him in London, was another girl completely (Kelly?) And the way he ended up with Dianne was different, she was much less sharp tongued and much more naive, and the whole breakfast and post-breakfast scene was completely different.
The second major beef I had was with the ending. In the book Rents stole the money with no qualms and no regrets. He didn't leave a cent for Spud and he didn't plan on giving up the skag and turning clean. He was going to heave off to France and live in a heroin paradise; not working and reverting to drugs.
Thirdly, Tommy was much more bitter and dejected; he blamed Renton for his AIDS and was never able to deal with it properly.
Finally, the entire reason for the title was dropped. The whole 'Trainspotting' scene has not even a mention in the film, not even a mention of Begbie's father...
And then there's Rents' brother, who barely rates a glance in the film...
A gripe I have about the film itself, is that some scenes are overdone, even useless. The scene where Renton kicks is horrid; the whole baby crawling across the ceiling/Spud in chains/Tommy as a haggard AIDS victim (though we don't even know he has it at that point) is just too much. And a waste of time. Definitely one scene that could have been sacrifice; or at least they could have found a better way to do it.
And a lot of scenes were sloppy...much of the information that is essential to the story is given in passing, or we find out facts after they've been displayed. I think this is because of the shape the original script took, and the cuts seem to have harmed the story in a way that should have been repaired.
But all that aside, the film was cast perfectly (Dianne aside, who shouldn't have really been as important to the film as she was, even). Jonny Lee Miller is the absolute perfect Sick Boy, and MacGregor is brilliant as Rents. Ewen Bremner is hilarious as Spud, especially in the job scene (the Renton half of that scene, which is missing from the film, is even more amusing;) and he also makes an appearance in the other Irvine Welsh film, The Acid House, which anyone who liked this film should go out and watch... Top off that cast with Robert Carlyle as an amazing Begbie, and Irvine Welsh himself popping in as Mikey, and we're all set.
Overall: The errors and changes in the film don't really ruin it, but fans of the book may be disappointed somewhat. This film doesn't come close to Danny Boyle and John Hodge's previous effort, Shallow Grave, but it's still a fabulous film. Anyone who hasn't read the book will appreciate the film even more, and who could ask for a better cast?? All gripes aside, I still rate this an easy 8/10.