Maybe I'm just getting old too....

Rating: 2/10 (17 May 2003)

...but if you're older, married, have kids, live the normal suburban life, you probably won't like this movie unless you are truly a film fanatic who just has to see everything that's out there. I guess I left those days behind...
Now, on the other hand, if you want a glimpse of the low-rent, depressing, hopelessness and anger-inducing life of everyday heroin addicts in Scotland who rail against the establishment, then this is the movie for you.
Other reviewers have given good synopses and their own critiques of the film so I won't need to repeat them. I just know that my free time is becoming more and more limited at this stage of my life so that I'd like to spend the little time I have for movies watching ones that are unique, spectacular, entertaining, uplifting, insightful, engaging, or just plain fun.
After watching "Trainspotting," I felt that I had just wasted two hours of my life. Sure, I got to see the movie that may have made Ewan McGregor, and yes I got to see the seamy side of heroin-addiction as a "normal" way of life in Edinburgh, but looking back now, I think I could have lived my life without having experienced that and not felt that I had missed anything.
Anyway, if you're younger than say 35 and still living that single life and am proud that you haven't "sold out" to the system, you may like this movie. If you're older than that, and "are" the establishment nowadays with that steady corporate tax-paying job, the 2.1 kids, the house in suburbia, and the weekend house on the lake, you'll either: 1) Have disgust for the slacking lifestyle portrayed in this film, and wonder "What a waste!", and/or 2) Be amazed at how much YOU've changed from being similarly rebellious in your own youth (well, maybe not a heroin addict) and become what you are today.
Whether this film will appeal to you depends on your age and life-situation. Although I felt I pretty much wasted my time watching it, it would have added insult to injury if I had paid to rent this. If you really feel you must see it, then do what I did and use a free-rental coupon. That way, at most, you'll only be out your time.
(And hey, by the way, what is the title "Trainspotting" got to do with the movie anyway?? If you search on google, you'll find a number of theories...)