Daily Staff Writer

It took two months to get Trainspotting in Ames, but it’s worth the wait. It’s easily one of the year’s best films.

Relentlessly grim, but laced with a healthy shot of black humor, it’s an unflinching look at heroin addiction and its various effects on those who take the drug and those around them.

It’s high praise to say that Trainspotting is reminicent of GoodFellas in its structure and tone – and its quality. Director Danny Boyle, unsuccessfully courted to direct the upcoming Alien: Resurrection, has constructed a film of immense energy and impact.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Mark Renton, in a blistering performance by Ewan McGregor. The first third of the film is stunning. A hilarious, kinetic romp through the lives of Mark and his pals Spud, Tommy and the Sick Boy, who has a fixation with Sean Connery.

They spend their time scamming and stealing to feed their addiction and are joined by a fifth, Begbie, an alcoholic sadist who is always spoiling for a fight. When not on the scam, they get loaded and do nothing, as if in a Scottish Dazed and Confused .

But things get dark in the second act. A horrible death occurs, and Mark is arrested during a shoplifting attempt. He runs afoul of the law by breaking his probation agreement, leading his parents to force him to dry out.

Mark’s withdrawal is brutal, shown in a long hallucination sequence which is truly disturbing. One of the friends contracts HIV, the result of sharing a needle.

Eventually, Mark cleans up and makes his way to London and a real job – but his past catches up with him, forcing him into one more scam and taste of the addict’s lifestyle.

Believe it or not, Trainspotting has a positive message – choose life.

It is a thoroughly unromantic film, and it in no way glamorizes the lives of Mark and his friends. They live in a world surrounded by death, where they must constantly feed their appetite for smack at the cost of everything they have.

However, the characters who change their ways and leave the addict’s life live and start over. Also, the depiction of addiction and its consequences is truly horrifying.

This film will certainly not entice people into trying heroin if they have not already done so. It should scare them into avoiding it for good.

For that reason, this is a perfect anti-drug film. However, it is so blunt and straightforward that it will probably offend the parents of junior-high and high-school students, those most likely to benefit from seeing it. There is explicit – very explicit – language, sex and violence, a cornucopia of foul behavior.

That’s a shame, because this film could make a difference. It doesn’t take the Dole-sanctioned “Just Don’t Do It” approach; it attacks its harsh subject head-on. And it succeeds as whopping entertainment at the same time.

Trainspotting is rated R for adult language, content, violence and nudity.