The Limitless Diary - T2 Trainspotting

Hey folks, so I finally picked up an Odeon Limitless Card, after wembling about it for a while.  I used to have an Unlimited Card with Cineworld, but a) Odeons are slightly easier for me to get to, and b) they’re generally a bit nicer and less… sticky compared to Cineworld.  Since I’m going to be checking out more stuff at no extra cost, I thought I’d update on here more regularly as I go, keep exercising the creative muscles.  This is going to mostly about reviews and the like, but I may have the odd tangental topic on here (although I’m banning myself from going off on a rant about mobile phone use.. for now).  I guess with a deeply uncertain world right now, I’m also doing this because I seriously need a bit more escapism.  Let’s see how this goes, starting with...

What an awkward title.  I should say that I was a bit late to the party to the original Trainspotting in a lot of ways.  I certainly knew of it; even though I was only ten when it came out, that marketing was everywhere, the name and poster was unavoidable.  I only got to see it shortly after beginning Uni and… thought it was alright.  I’ve seen it a few times since then, and I think the reason this has never sunk in that for me is that it’s a little too loose storywise, touches of “and then” storytelling.  I suppose for a film about disaffected youth, that was a touch deliberate, but it’s probably why it never quite kicked for me.

So I didn’t really go into this with a proper set of expectations, and really enjoyed it.  In fact, I might go so far to say that I enjoyed it a little bit more than the original.  It’s twofold as to why; first, there’s much more of a plot this time, point to point, so there’s a better structure. The second is probably a bit more personal; a key theme of this movie, since there’s a lot less focus on heroin use this time, is that nostalgia has become almost a drug lifestyle for many of the characters here instead.  As someone who’s always living behind the times, and I will fully admit to spending way too much time looking back on what I had, and what I missed, that speaks to me a great deal.  This is a great film, one of Danny Boyle’s most enjoyable in quite a while (If I could count it as a film, I’d say since the Olympic opening ceremony).  Good use of elements of the original, neat seeing the different interpretations of the characters after all the time (I found myself warming to Ewen Bremner’s Spud most of all), and some superb set pieces; I think the 1690 set piece is going to be most well remembered looking back on it.  See it!