Stands the Test of Time

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2006)

The last time I watched this movie was before I left the UK for California, and that was in 1997. So it's got to be at least 8 years since I last saw it. My membership of that online movie rental company whose name I won't mention, has allowed me to track down and re-watch semi forgotten classics. A couple of weeks ago it was Cinema Paradiso, this weekend Trainspotting, and quite honestly, I'd forgotten just how good a movie it is. And now my teenage kids are old enough to watch it too, but they weren't in 1997. It's a very British movie, and after 8 years of living here, I can understand why so many of the American commentators didn't like it. Black humor and irony just don't go down well here. That's not intended to be a criticism, just a fact. Other people have said that they are "too old" to appreciate or understand it; well I'm 50, so I don't think that's a good enough excuse!
Even after all these years, it's a movie that still has the power to shock, because it's laugh out loud funny in places and horrifying in others, and it's the juxtaposition of the two that makes it work. What we see are a bunch of losers. They are selfish, asinine, scruffy and lazy no-hopers, dumb beyond belief after a British education, given to petty criminality to feed their habit, and living lives on the margin of society. They possess nothing of beauty or value as it's all been sold or pawned, they have a neglected child and live in filth and squalor. Heroin is their lives, they are utterly amoral and, as they are presumably consenting adults, we wouldn't give a toss about any of them except, of course, that they are funny in that dumb way that only total losers can be, and they might even be sleeping with our daughters and there's that baby haunting the film. And of course the worst of the lot, mad, psychotic Begbie, isn't even a junkie. "Wouldn't touch that filth," he says as he downs another pint and pulls a knife on his fellow drinkers. At least I think that's what he said.....
When Renton, the brightest one of their number, kicks the habit with some tough love from his parents, and starts a fresh life in London, he still can't escape as the rest follow him there. He steals the proceeds of their one big deal, and finally makes off with the filthy lucre. Is it theft if you steal from thieves? I can't quite decide why I like this movie so much. Maybe because it's just so uncompromising. Maybe because it's just so British. But it's worth fighting your way past the accents and it bears repeat watching. It was also interesting to see an early performance by Kelly Macdonald who went on to give such a very good performance in Gosford Park. She should be more widely known here. Maybe 2006 will be her year?