Not the cultural touchstone that critics say it is.

Rating: 4/10 (15 March 2017)

OK, so with all of the kerfuffle about "T2 Trainspotting" coming out I thought it was high time (no pun intended) that I watch this film.
As it happens, I heard interviews with Irvine Welsh (author of the novel Trainspotting) and Danny Boyle, who directed the film, just prior to writing this review. Both men are engaging interviewees and, had I heard the interviews before seeing the film, I might have had even higher expectations.
Sadly, my expectations were not met. There's nothing even remotely attractive to this film. The characters are not in the least sympathetic. We can't really care about their miserable, thieving lives. They are just a pitiful bunch: Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie. Begbie is particularly odious.
We don't really learn much about life in post-industrial Edinburgh other than the fact that these sad characters spend their time stealing, shooting heroin and drinking in the pubs. Why are they unemployed? Why is there no work? How did they find themselves in this situation after leaving school? Where do they get the money for heroin, other than from stealing? We never find out.
There's a technique that the writer or director (or both) use in an attempt to make these characters likable. They make them well- spoken, using words that we would generally not hear from such low-lifes. This, I assume, is intended to persuade the viewer that they're just like us, but just fallen on hard times. Even better: give one of the characters a quirky interest that he can ramble on about at various points in the film. In this case, James Bond films and Sean Connery. "Aww, isn't that cute", we're supposed to think. It's not cute, it's a technique to manipulate the viewer that I despise.
I would hope that no one sees this film as representing a generation that came of age in the 1990's because it is not representative.
Watch it if you must, but be forewarned: it isn't the cultural touchstone that critics will say it is.