TRAINSPOTTING

So, is Trainspotting worth all the hype? Is it the 'film of the decade' that it has been hailed as?

Well, it's a great film, but I don't know if I'd go that far. What we get with Trainspotting is a funny, bleak, sick, disturbing movie that starts in-yer-face with sharp dialogue, great acting, flash editing and clever cinematography. However, I felt the film lost the way a little in the closing third (when the action switches to London), treading instead the rather pedestrian home-grown thriller territory - a bit of a let-down.

I thought the same of Irvine Welsh's book - that the ending was really a tacked-on afterthought to an excellent collection of what were essentially short stories about a common group of characters. However, at least the book only spent a couple of chapters on the London events - the film seems to devote a disproportionate amount of time to this part of the action. Also, perhaps understandably, the film takes less of an episodic approach to the subject matter, introducing a narrative thread and a main character that the book did not have (or indeed require).

These gripes aside, however, Trainspotting is a great film. The performances are all excellent and convincing (particularly Robert Carlyle's psychotic Begbie), and the soundtrack and innovative techniques really add to the film's drug-soaked atmosphere. It will in NO WAY attract anyone to heroin though, as some have claimed - this presents drug-use in a matter-of-fact fashion, if anything concentrating on the absolute lows rather than the highs.

Trainspotting then is an excellent British-made film that is definitely worth going to see. I can't help but feel it could have been that little bit better, however (the stage version proves what could be done with the subject matter - it is faultless).

Goes off the rails towards the end. 8/10