Trainspotting

A film set in Edinburgh. Renton uses heroin. So do his friends; it is not one person but everyone around him living the same life. The film opens with a list. The narrator counts out what choosing life means and says at the end that he chose something else. From there the film proceeds as a series of episodes. An attempt to stop, a toilet, a baby, a fight in a pub, a walk in the country, and a court. The withdrawal is the centre of the film. He shuts himself in a room and what he sees is shown directly. What the narrative is interested in is not addiction but the alternative: the film says plainly why the drug is attractive and does nothing to polish the life on the other side. The group of friends is the real engine. Begbie never uses and is the most dangerous of them; Spud is too soft to harm anyone and loses the most. The last section is built on a job in London and the film turns into a theft story there. The tone is fast and funny. The narrative passes the deaths at the same rhythm, which is its most argued-over feature. The music is half its identity; British music of the period is used alongside much older tracks. The source is Irvine Welsh's novel. The book was written in a heavy dialect and the film largely keeps it; on release, subtitles were considered for the opening sections in some countries. Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald are in the cast. Danny Boyle directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes British cinema of the 1990s and fast storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone the subject would weigh on; several scenes are unbearable on purpose.