Review of T2 Trainspotting (2017) by Viet Phuong N — 10 Sep 2017

I love this film! Although not as fresh as the original (the structure, motives, character arc, and many sequences of this film either reflected or simply repeated the ones from the original), this film still warmed my heart with its quirky characters of awful "qualities" but still retaining some tiny yet shiny pieces of beauty in the deep down of their souls.

The contrast between these characters of their young, desperately poor but optimistically promising years in the original and of the later years (may I even say the autumn of their lives) in this film with nothing left but some hopeless dreams and broken relationships really made my heart sank a little bit thinking about losses along the long and winding road of my own.

Thankfully, though, the film is never all about pessimism or just a cynical view of the lives of the "losers" (either due to addiction, cowardliness, or ignorance) and their obsession with the past (that is "glorious" in their mind but was actually just as heart-breaking as their present except for the existence of hope), but it is also a tale of lasting friendship, of the perverse love for "home" and the past (as Veronika answered when being asked "To go home with nothing, what's at home?": "You know, emotional attachment"), of the optimism that is needed even more when you are in an inescapable hole.

This film really made me miss the original, in a good way, as the dialogues and monologues are still hilarious and witty at the same time (although not as effective, since many are just a replay with some modern touches of the sequences from the original - the modern touches on the negativity of social networks and such are pretty light-weight and pale in comparison with this film's critical portray of traditional vices like addiction), the cinematography is just marvellous (the reference to "The Shining" - a masterpiece of obsession and hallucination is amazing, and the camera angles were chosen in a really interesting way), and the bombastic soundtrack is just all I can ask for from a sequel of "Trainspotting".

This film did okay from the financial perspective, but I feel sad that not many people talked about it despite the film's quality and the legacy of the original film. Still, to me this is a really entertaining film and another reminder of how good Danny Boyle (still) is.

The only disappointment is that Kelly Macdonald only appeared in a cameo role even though she could have been entrusted with a much more fleshed-out character like in the original (the lack of a true heist-like plot is also a let-down).