Movies have been preoccupied recently with time and aging _ Richard Linklater with his "Sunrise" trilogy and "Boyhood," even "Logan" with its superhero-in-winter premise.
The latest in that vein (pardon the pun) is "T2 Trainspotting," a chance for Danny Boyle to revisit his 1997 surprise smash, at the time a galvanizing rebel yell for U.K. youth, seen through the experiences of four hedonistic Scots friends (Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan Bremner).
All key members of the original cast were game for a reunion, even after Boyle told them how merciless the sequel would be.
"We told them, 'Look, we're literally going to be juxtaposing you with the original incarnations of you, right there on screen. That will be cruel for you,'" said Boyle, who weaves snippets from the original into "T2," contrasting the chest-puffing of youth with the sagged shoulders of middle age.
"T2" wades remorselessly into the subject of fortysomething disappointment. The four men didn't have much in the original aside from friendship, and in the embittered "T2," they don't even have that. The plot has them settling old scores.
"There is a place for carelessness and rebelliousness, and that place is youth. But you keep going, and by the time you get to your 40s, that is gone, and you've lived, and gotten married, and fathered children, and suffered disappointments. ('T2') is about that, and about the process of atonement."
Knitting together images of the characters, young and old, makes the point in a unique way, Boyle said.
"I think movies, of all of the art forms, are about time. Someone has said, and it's true, that when you're editing, you're really doing two things _ you slow time down, or you speed it up. In more extreme circumstances," Boyle said, "you can freeze time, unlock time, or imagine future time."
Time, he said, also frames the interaction between director and audience.
"Part of the contract with the audience, you ask for 90 minutes or two hours of their time, and they give it you, and you give them in return an interpretation of time. No other art form can do that, play with time in front of you like that. No wonder movies turn to time as a subject."
