Good dialog but just doesn't connect with me

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2004)

We have a group of young male friends that include 2 sociopaths (Sick Boy and Begbie),a dimwit (Spud), and two fairly normal guys, Tommy, and the main protagonist, "Rent Boy" (McGregor). All except Begbie are heroin users, which is portrayed as an alternative to lower middle class "normal" life in Scotland. Tommy decides to give drugs a try and quickly comes down with AIDS. Begbie (Carlyle)is a really distasteful violent criminal with no redeeming qualities. The other characters are interesting due to the dialog rather than anything inherent in their characters. Anyone who likes dark British humor (eg, Naked) will find this entertaining, at least to a point, as I did. There is some very funny dialog, as when the boys are out on a scenic countryside walk and one exclaims that the air is so clean, and another replies that when you live in a "shite" country like Scotland, the clean air don't enter into it. Rent Boy tries to get clean, gets a job, but is ultimately pulled back into the crime and drug scene by his friends. Whether he ultimately escapes is anyone's guess. At the end of the film, my feeling was similar to the one I had for Requiem for a Dream-- namely, things evolve pretty much as you would expect for a group of heavy drug users. Trainspotting, however, has far better dialog than Requiem which really carries the film, although I did not find any of the characters interesting in themselves. I give this a 7 out of 10. Like Requiem, many people are awed by this film, but I don't think this has much repeat viewing potential for me.