T2 Trainspotting

Sequels are invariably a bad idea.

Danny Boyle invariably confounds expectations.

Which of these two statements wins out when they come together?

Of course a sequel implies continuity, and T2 comes heavily loaded with all that took place in the twenty year old original.  I'm not sure how someone who hadn't seen that classic will find the newcomer because it relies so highly on past references.  No doubt it can be enjoyed in it's own right, but you would miss out on so much that feeds on that prior knowledge.  It also means it's impossible to review the film without spoilers for the 90's film, so if you do plan to see the latter before T2 then look away now.

Twenty years have passed and the same characters (and actors) are at the heart of the drama.  Time has treated each differently.  No surprise that Begbie is in prison.  Sick Boy runs a dying pub, but expends most of his energy on blackmail, scams and cocaine.  Spud is back on the heroin, still the eternal loser.  And Renton, who walked off with their money last time?  Renton is coming home, having 'made it' in Amsterdam.

It's his return that brings change, and reignites the relationships of their twenties.  All is not as it first seems in his life, and he soon finds himself drawn, reluctantly, into something like the old world he'd once inhabited in Leith.  Each of the characters is trying to break away from their past, and each one is also dominated by it.  Their efforts to secure some kind of future is the focus of the drama.

Once again Boyle has provided a movie of stunning images and sequences, and the Edinburgh backdrop is beautiful.  It's interspersed with flashbacks to the original, reminders of the men they once were and can never be again.  There's also nods to many of the iconic nineties images that make sure the links are never forgotten.  (As I mentioned before, much of this richness would be lost to anyone who couldn't get these references,)  And Ewan McGregor's Renton delivers a modern reprise of his famous Choose Life riff, part socialist optimism, part nihilist despair.

There's an excellent supporting cast, including James Cosmo, Irvine Welsh himself and a sadly underused Kelly Macdonald in their original roles, but it's the interaction between the four main characters that provides the meat.  Reviving old memories brings back old problems, and themes of  friendship, addiction and revenge run throughout.  As does the search for redemption and some kind of future that provides hope, which may turn up in the most unlikely forms.

McGregor's Renton remains the most rational of the group, and his presence and occasional narrations provide a solid centre to the action.  Jonny Lee Miller's Sick Boy has lost some of the charm of his nineties incarnation, but the amorality remains.  Spud's haplessness might make him the butt of much of the humour (and there are many laugh out loud moments throughout the two hours), but Ewen Bremner gives the best performance of the movie in making him a much more complex and interesting character.  And providing the dark shadow overhanging the story is the psychopathic malevolence of the ever-excellent Robert Carlyle's Begbie, yet even he is given his moment of self realisation and the chance to show the humanity that has been all but squeezed from him.

It's fast, funny, poignant, thrilling and densely packed with cultural references.  There might not be anything quite as visually visceral as the famous toilet sequence of the original, but it's no pale shadow and has the performances, cinematography, storyline and humanity to stand on it's own merits.  Highly recommended, but do try to catch up on the '96 film first.

The end result?  Sequels nil, Danny Boyle four.