Who Needs Immaculate, Just Excellent Is Good Enough For Me

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2002)

I have just watched this movie for the umpteenth time, and throughly enjoyed it for the umpteenth time, so I would be hard pressed to say anything negative about it. Expertly balanced dialogue, visuals, acting, music, each element on its own is excellent, and together they make for a memorable cinematic experience. Hell, even the graphic design of the print advertisements (which were used to promote this movie when it came out, and also on the book cover) were nothing less than seminal. So my obvious conclusion is, if you haven't yet seen it, go see it, if you have already seen it, you could do a lot worse than to watch it once again.
Still, I have some problems with, not the film itself, but its popular perception and media reception. There has been a lot of hubbub about whether this film glorifies drug abuse or truthfully "tells it as it is", or that it even carries a stern "don't do drugs" message. I think that this discussion entirely misses the point, and that Trainspotting (the film) takes neither of these three attitudes. It simply uses a fascinating (yes, squalor on celluloid mostly IS fascinating, end of discussion!) setting to showcase several interesting and entertaining episodes, the bottom line being entertainment, as opposed to documentation, education or political statement. There is no morality here. War movies use a war setting, detective movies use a crime setting, and who would claim that "American Pie" was a truthful portrayal of American high school and college life in the early years of the third millennium? Expecting Trainspotting to break the mould and be both brilliant entertainment and a brutally honest documentary wrapped in one is simply asking too much. Just enjoy it for what it is.
And to anyone still sounding off about how Trainspotting is an accurate portrayal of addiction in mid - Nineties Edinburgh -- have you been there, at that time, in that scene, and lived to tell? Not bleeding likely, boyo. Please shut up.