Review of Trainspotting (1996) by Darien S — 15 Oct 2012

Trainspotting keeps itself distanced from its protagonists so that we don't really root for any of them. Even Ewan McGregor's character only elicits our pity. There are occasional moments where Mark Renton becomes sympathetic in our eyes but the film is more concerned with portraying a culture than a group of individuals.

The film shines in the moments where it becomes dream like and lurid. There are many hallucinatory visuals to be found (Renton swimming in a lake under a toilet; feeling like he is being carried in an enormous rug, ect.). Many of the visuals accurately portray drug use as a disorienting experience. But even when the film portrays Renton as sober, there isn't a sense of change in the tone. The film is laudable in its strict adherence to realism but the film feels aimless.

The horrifying aspects of the film feel out of place. I'm not advocating for a sensationalized account of drug use or a inspirational story of recovery. Those are both passe techniques of storytelling. I just hoped that the film would be more intimate in its love of its characters. I never felt like I liked or knew any of them. The film was too quick and caught up in visual overload that it never stops to get inside anyone's head.

The more poignant or tense moments don't contribute to the whole but are still harrowing: A baby's presence (eerily foreshadowing doom) is a thing of nightmares; A scene involving a bed sheet and the accident wrapped inside of it flung on to an unsuspecting family; Renton shooting up after the death of someone close.

The film acts as a warning against drugs and attempts to humanize those that imbue it. I didn't hate the people involved. I just felt like they were part of a grander scheme and lazy attempts to talk about consumerism. The whole affair feels too anarchistic to feel too profound.