T2: Trainspotting reunites Boyle and the cast twenty years later and is loosely based on Irving Welsh’s follow-up novel Porno. It’s very dependant on the fallout from the first film, so spoilers are ahead if you haven’t seen Trainspotting.
Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) returns to Edinburgh after twenty years living in Amsterdam, to the not-so-happy friends he robbed and betrayed when last he saw them. Spud (Ewen Bremner) is still struggling with his heroin addiction and is estranged from his wife and son. Simon “Sick Boy” (Jonny Lee Miller) has inherited a pub which he pays for by blackmailing people through sex tapes he stages with his Bulgarain girlfriend Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova). And Begbie (Robert Carlyle) has been serving prison time all these years with a fierce vendetta against Mark. As Mark tries to patch things up with his old mates and sort out his life, Begbie escapes and hunts him down.
The key theme to this film is ageing. And that accounts for this film being both similar and also wildly different to its predecessor. The tone for a start, is far from the energy and dark comedy of the original. There’s a much more restrained comic relief which works to convey the seriousness with which the characters now take their lives and problems. The world has changed around them. This is apparent in the cinematography and setting. Gone is the grimy, rough Edinburgh of 1996, and this movie shows off a world-class city. Yet this is subverted by many of the characters clinging onto the past. None of Mark’s friends can initially let go of what happened twenty years ago, not even Spud whom he sympathized with enough to leave £4,000 of what he stole from the group. Begbie, and to a lesser degree, Simon haven’t grown much in the interim, and Mark’s reappearance brings with it some self-reflection for all; and even he, who’s seemingly had the best life being the only one clean of his addiction all this time, is going through severe personal strife. Hence, why he’s back in Edinburgh. And damn if Boyle doesn’t still know how to shoot a movie and edit metaphors into scenes beautifully (the Spud falling scene comes to mind).
Trainspotting made the careers of Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, and Robert Carlyle and it’s just great to see them in a movie together again. They’ve not lost these characters either and each play their part with a passion that shows real investment. Mark is much less of an anti-hero than in the first, as he’s the one making the most effort to turn lives around, but McGregor still plays that longing for understanding and glimmer of irresponsibility well. Both he and Simon have had a messy family history in the past two decades and you get the sense of them attempting to reconcile that through sketchy business ventures to renovate Simon’s pub. Miller is very good too, still affecting a convincing Scottish accent, as Simon struggles with legal troubles, his new cocaine addiction, and uncertainty with how to feel towards Mark after what happened. Carlyle is still just as unhinged and frightening as Begbie. The most interesting addition to his life is the fact he’s got a son whom he tries to induct into criminal activities. The most endearing one in the cast though has always been Spud, the sympathetic kid who you feel would’ve turned out alright, had he not fallen in with the wrong lot. Bremner is terrific at playing this middle-aged guy at the end of his rope. When Mark finds him, it’s in the middle of a suicide attempt, but he slowly begins to put his life together and it’s a wonderful journey. Nedyalkova does alright with her own minor arc of trying to go back to Bulgaria, and the film brings back a few familiar faces in small roles like James Cosmo as Mark’s father and Shirley Henderson as Gail, Spud’s wife.
The film intermixes a lot of footage from the original movie, which most of the time works as a good visual contrast to where things are now, particularly when Mark goes to his old room or when Spud spots a couple runners down a familiar street. There are also moments I must assume were unused footage from the first movie in various flashbacks. But a couple of times the nostalgia is a little too on the nose. There’s a pointless “worst toilet in Scotland” callback, and the reminiscing about Kevin McKidd’s Tommy in the same scenic place with the same shots where he talked about Scotland in the first film felt a little forced. And speaking of which, Scottish identity isn’t much of a theme in this movie where in the first it was pretty prominent, and I missed that. Unlike in the first film which featured a lot of narration from Mark, the sequel only employs that sporadically. There isn’t much in the way of visual creativity either, but I give this a pass as that was originally just an aspect of the drug-taking, and this film isn’t concerned much with that. What bugs me the most though is Kelly Macdonald’s cameo. Granted Diane wasn’t a major part of the first film, but still important enough in Mark’s life to deserve more than a one-scene appearance and a joke. I think it was a really missed opportunity not to touch on their history and feelings twenty years later. It’s a disservice to their relationship, to a great character, and to a great actress like Macdonald. Oh, and how does it make sense that Begbie’s got a son when he’s been in jail for twenty years?
But otherwise, T2 is a really good sequel. Obviously it doesn’t live up to the legacy of the first and is quite different in perspective, but honestly that’s what’s needed for a film like this. It’s a great chance to revisit these characters and is done with great direction, a tremendous script from John Hodge, interesting subject matter, and actual trainspotting this time.
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