Is there nothing left that can't be set aside from a film studio's obsession with making money? It seems not. The latest (well - 2 months ago now nearly) classic cult film to get the remake / revision / re-imagining / sequel treatment is Trainspotting. Sigh. Anyway, the studio know people like me are going to go and see it, if only just to check if it's terrible. That's why they make films like this. One of these days I'll stop dancing to their tune.
The new Trainspotting - T2 - is set 20 years after the original. Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) has been living in Amsterdam since the events of the original and for reasons has to return to Edinburgh. Cue a story about getting old, being old, and trying to work out what it is that went wrong.
The
thing to remember about
Trainspotting is that its place in the annals
of British film came from two different angles. Firstly, it documented a
time and a place in British culture. If you were in your late teens /
early 20s in the mid 1990s and you wanted nothing to do with 'Cool
Britania' and 'Blair's Babes', then you existed on the fringes of
popular culture. These were the fringes that
Trainspotting did so well
to record for posterity. Secondly it brought Danny Boyle into the
mainstream. His eclectic and energetic style of direction is still
copied by film-makers to this day.
I am not interested in
nostalgiac wanders down memory lane. I do not want to see parodies of
scenes from an original film. I don't want to watch Frances Begbie (Robert Carlyle) reprise his famous taunting of a crowded bar. I don't want to hear Mark
Renton update his "Choose life..." monologue for the 21st century. I
don't want to see callbacks to scenes that tick fanboy-boxes. Enough of
that goes on in the endless remakes and soft reboots spewing out of
Holywood (
Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, Ghostbusters, Spiderman -
they're all at it). The only reason to make another Trainspotting film
is if there is a story worth telling.
Thankfully - and you
will understand that this was a very big sigh of relief for me -
Trainspotting 2 does have a story to tell. Rather than offer just a
montage of throwbacks to the original, or crave for the nostalgia of the
mid-1990s,
T2 is about ageing and choices - you know, those things we do every day of our lives. It's about waking up and
discovering that you're suddenly 40 years old when your mind still
thinks it's 18. It's about wondering where time and opportunities have gone.
The film doesn't completely eschew the desire to provide fanservice and nob vigorously towards the classic scenes of yesteryear. Am updated "Choose Life..." monologue is a particular low-point. As is Robert Carlisle delivering a reprise of Begbie's
most famous of lines. In
Trainspotting Renton's monologue broke the 4th
wall - he was talking to us. It shouldn't exist in the universe of the
film. Begbie's blood-soaked fight in the bar was
portrayed as par-for-the-course event back in the day. Why
would this particular fight be memorable enough for him to remember it
20 years later? We remember it because we watched
Trainspotting. There
is no reason Begbie would attach any specific significance to that
particular time he started one of many brawls. These scenes shouldn't be in there, however they fact that they are short and noticeable by
their contrast to the rest of the film is a positive. These minor moments of fan-services I can abide - but I still cringed a little
inside.
Given that they decided to make this film, I will admit that it was much better than I could have hoped or expected. Minor criticisms aside, it tells a new story, largely avoids fan service and is rather touching. British film fans of the 1990s can rest easy, and with luck Danny Boyle can now go off and create something new.
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