Trainspotting Critique

Trainspotting is highly engaging and riveting. The gross scenes aren't as bad as some reviewers make it out to be (though I do have a high tolerance level). In some cases, there is an added amount of surrealism that makes such a scene work, and that's the main strength of this movie.

The movie is about five childhood friends, four of whom are (or end up becoming) heroin addicts. The fifth, Begbie (Robert Carlyle), while not an addict, is a bit of a psychopath. The movie takes us through their battle with addiction. The depiction of the heroin addiction is effective because of the aforementioned surrealism, which...