Trainspotting 2 (Sony Pictures | TriStar Pictures – 2017) Review

If you’re a long-time Trainspotting film fan (and haven’t read the books) you may have often wondered or theorised what became of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie after the said opportunity and betrayal ended the iconic first film.

Enter T2 – Danny Boyle’s long awaited sequel that has been 21 years in the making and is loosely based on Irvine Welsh’s follow-up novel, Porno.  The film begins with Renton running on a treadmill at a gym, as opposed to running away from the law.  He has spent 20 years in Amsterdam, living off the 12,000 pounds he had stolen from the group, but returns to Edinburgh after the death of his Mother and decides to reconnect with Spud and Sick Boy.  Begbie, however, is hell bent on revenge whilst serving time for the events of the first film, and sees Robert Carlyle reprise the role with a deeper darker and mature performance.

What ensues is a nostalgia filled trip, with events and themes surrounding the passage of time and adulthood, that will resonate with those who watched the first film (as I did) in their teens and 20’s.

Creating a sequel to Trainspotting, which is widely touted as a film that defined a generation, was never going to be easy.  When director Danny Boyle was introducing the film at the Auckland premiere, he said that people were anxious that they were going to do a terrible sequel, and that what fans wanted was the same but different.  He said “…because if you do it completely the same, then everybody hates it cause they just feel ripped off.  And if you do it completely different, they hate it because they just feel ripped off, so you’ve got to do the same, but different, and that’s what we tried to do.”

My opinion is that’s exactly what they did with this film and they got it bang on.  While T2 was never going to have the same shock and awe impact as it’s predecessor, it feels authentic and true to where the characters and story would be after 20 years.  It’s no longer about the self-perceived invincibility and carelessness of wasted youth, but the reality of aging and adulthood, and living with the ripple-effect consequences of the choices one makes in their youth.  Flashbacks to the tragic figure of Tommy, and scenes from the group’s shared childhood adds to an underlying sense of wistful nostalgia throughout the film.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of comedy, vibrancy and action to keep the film from a being an overtly melancholy affair.  Spud still provides comic relief as time has only seen his gormless nature intensify.  Sick Boy is still a peroxided wheeling and dealing schemer, albeit now in a different part of Scotland’s seedy underworld.  Renton is still a morally ambiguous anti-hero of sorts, and Begbie is at his bloodthirsty psychopathic best.

The technological and pharmaceutical advancements that have occurred in the world since the first film (internet, social media, cellphones etc) play a huge role in the story and serve as a pointed contrast between old and new.  And keeping with the old and new / same but different direction Danny was going for, the soundtrack is phenomenal.  According to him, the three main questions fans wanted to know were whether the original actors would be in the film, whether Kelly McDonald would return, and whether the soundtrack would be as good as the first.

The song selection is pure Britannia.

It’s a brilliant mix of old and new and includes remixed versions of seminal tracks from the first film, classics from Blondie and Queen, as well as new artists like Edinburgh’s alt-rap / RnB trio, Young Fathers and English rock group, Fat White Family.

I have to warn you though, there is some product placement in the film which may irk the hardcore fans of the original, but to me they seemed more like a statement, rather than an advertisement.

A statement about the way the world, and film making, has changed since the original, and it only adds to the sense of how much time has passed.  Like the flashbacks, the product placement evoked for a sense of sadness for what used to be and for what can’t be replicated.  You don’t have to have watched the first film to get the story of T2, there are more than enough scenes where the script explains the goings on in the first film, but it’s the little things that will take a long time fan back – certain phrases and facial expressions from the characters, even a George Best montage showing the obligatory goal against Sheffield United, it all adds to the fan experience.  It’s exactly what I could have hoped for in a sequel, this long in the making.

T2 is very much same, but different, and Begbie summarised it best in the film: ”The world changes…even if we don’t”