Trainspotting (1996)
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Trainspotting Movie Review
Trainspotting is a 1996 crime film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor. Such an expectedly overrated movie.
As is the case with most of these movies about drugs, I disliked this one too. It is basically just like every other film of this genre and it never has anything that differentiates it. So uninspired, so typical and so dull.
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“Personality, I mean that’s what counts, right?
That’s what keeps a relationship going through the years.
Like heroin, I mean heroin’s got a great fucking personality“
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Another problem is the lack of a clear message. Instead of being anti-drugs, the movie never even touches upon that issue in that way. That’s not to say that it glorifies drugs because thankfully it does not, but it also never presents it as a big issue that it is. It is ambivalent and that’s a always a huge problem for me.
Trainspotting’s saving grace is its acting. Everyone here does a really good job with Ewan McGregor in particular being phenomenal. In fact, he did such an admirable job that I bought him in this role which at first I felt was not fitting to him, but he proved me otherwise. The direction from Danny Boyle is also solid as is the editing, but I still continue to dislike his movies as there’s only a couple from his filmography I genuinely liked.
Trainspotting isn’t disgusting all the time, but when it is, it’s just awful, repulsive and plain unwatchable from the last couple of violent scenes to that sickening toilet scene which was just too gruesome too describe. It was a totally unpleasant experience that was made all the more unnecessary given its lack of a clear-cut message.
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It is well paced and its running time is reasonable. The structure is also solid and those technical aspects are the reasons why I consider it to be mediocre instead of just plain bad. But this is still such a, needless to say, hugely overrated movie and I expected that given its subject matter which is why I wasn’t disappointed in it. But I still continue to find Danny Boyle and his movies too much praised when in reality they are mostly so ordinary.
Trainspotting is technically well made with good editing and a particularly strong performance from Ewan McGregor, but the plot is typical and uninspired and it is so repulsive and plain disgusting in some sequences and that’s made all the more unnecessary given its evident lack of a clear-cut message. Such an overrated, troublesome and unpleasant crime film.
My Rating – 2.5
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