Filth

Funny and dramatic at the same time. The main character of the film causes double feelings. On the one hand, he is disgusting and pathetic, but on the other hand, he is lonely and seriously ill. Guilt eats away from the inside of the protagonist. This can be seen from the last phrase: "The rules are the same everywhere." Everyone pays for their actions...

Mister Tumnus, I've a feeling we're not in Narnia any more…

Think you know James McAvoy? Think again. His performance in Jon S. Baird's adaptation of Irving Welsh's Filth is astounding and there is nothing sweet or fluffy about it or any other aspect of the film. Filth is very funny, very wrong, very sordid and very likely to incite hatred from Daily Mail readers across the land. Sex, drugs, more sex, more drugs, violence, corruption, depravity, even more sex and drugs… Filth is absolutely, well, filthy, and is a memorable experience to say the least.

My companion for the screening, Bag, made two comments that stood out post-screening. The first I agree with entirely: "With the thousands of films I've seen over the years, this is the first one I've come out of wishing that I'd made it." The second, that it was a film to appreciate rather than enjoy, I'm going dispute. Call me debauched, immoral and twisted, but I enjoyed every last nanosecond of Filth.

But that's not to say it is always easy viewing. Far from it. Sometime after the midway point the laughs die down, the stomach churns a little more uneasily, the grimaces are more evident and the intakes of breath are more audible. We are less willing to forgive but, like the car crash up ahead that has caused all the drivers in front to rubber-neck, well, just one long look as we pass can't hurt, can it?

Bruce Robertson (McAvoy) is a bigot. He's bi-polar, a junkie, sex-obsessed, self-obsessed, manipulative and frequently thoroughly unpleasant. He's also a cop. With a promotion in the balance, Bruce is up against several colleagues and sets about turning one against the other, unsettling them with salacious gossip and blatant lies to ensure he beats them to the post. Throw in his manipulation of fellow freemason Bladesey (Eddie Marsan), his sultry wife, Carole (Shauna MacDonald) and his hallucinatory sessions with Doctor Rossi (Jim Broadbent) and you have one monumentally screwed up anti-hero. And what's not to love about that?

The Cohen brothers may have the monopoly on fantastic character names, but nobody writes actual characters like Welsh and the cast that Baird has poured into Filth is staggeringly good in their interpretation of this mess of freaks and misfits. There isn't a poor performance in the entire film from the uncertain laddishness of Ray (Jamie Bell) to the fantastic absurdity of Doctor Rossi. While none are bona fide Hollywood stars, the cast that glitters in a maniacal, dirty way is a treat beyond expectation: Imogen Poots, Shirley Henderson, Gary Lewis (yes, Billy Elliott and his dad are reunited at last!), John Sessions, Joanne Froggatt…

Filth is a perfectly paced film; it roars ahead stirring emotions and judgment, exciting and thrilling as it trashes everything in its wake but it is never so fast that we feel left behind or that we've missed out on a juicy morsel of degeneracy. Sufficient time is allowed for us to filter through, as best we can, the quagmire that is Bruce's life, but Baird never pauses or permits us time to glance at our watch or neighbour.

The soundtrack, too, is bang on the money stamping though a musical landscape that is at times acceptably cheesy and more often a reminder of what to check is on the iPod. Where else can you effortlessly segue from David Soul into Shaking' Stevens? While the latter is consigned to audio wallpaper, the bizarrely fantastic cameo from David Soul is a delight. Had Dennis Potter snorted cocaine Pennies From Heaven might have resembled this.

Yes, there are elements of Welsh's novel that are missing (no police dogs here…) from Filth but there always have to be excisions for film adaptations and there's no reason, in this instance at least, to mark down a film for that. No, Filth is superb and as near to perfect as I've seen for many months (since Broken and Trance).

If the trailer excited you, take the plunge. If you're a nun, a granny, my mother, or lack a strong stomach and nurture your prudishness, take a very long, very fast walk in the direction of something much safer. Dixon of Dock Green this ain't!

If you look in the mirror and see something slightly off-kilter grinning back, however…

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If you like "Trainspotting", you'll love this one. "Filth" is also an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel and, although the stories do not have much in common, the movies share a specific atmosphere that will pin you to the screen. Its name fits perfectly, because the film is uncompromisingly dirty. James McAvoy plays a corrupt police detective who would stop at nothing to get his promotion. But behind the mask of a self-confident macho chauvinist, there are hidden secrets that the movie gradually unfolds, up to the totally wicked twist at the end. Although McAvoy's character is almost utterly bad guy, his rude and ruthless charm will mesmerize you and make you be on his side all the time, even when his behavior is inexcusably brutal. In addition to his undoubted acting talent, Mcavoy dedicated himself to the credibility of his performance, so he drank lots of whiskey in order to make his role of heavy alcoholic and drug addict more convincing. His transformations throughout the film, and the powerful expressions of psychological states and emotions of his character definitely deserve an Oscar. Although the film is full of insane moments, surreal scenes and filthy humor, "Filth" is primarily a powerful and shocking drama about a man who is falling apart inside, but whose life thought him that he must not show it. The film brings this phenomenon to surreal extremes, but essentially it is something with which many of us can identify, and I think that's precisely what makes McAvoy's character rather antihero than a villain, and what makes us sympathize with him.

8/10

I would just like to mention the remarkable performance of Jim Broadbent, whose surrealistic scenes make this film even more bizarre, and if you pay attention, you may notice tributes to Stanley Kubrick's cult films "A Clockwork Orange" and "Odyssey".

Inside the mind of a sex & drug addict policeman. His addictions are so deeply rooted in his personhood that they have entirely taken over his life and are the driving force in everything he does or does not do. Addiction means there's never enough and in his case drugs or sex.

This could have easily been a docudrama, instead it is a crime/comedy with a bit of drama. McAvoy is simply superb as the central mad hero and we undergo with a him a binging trip in corruption and debauchery where everyone in his life become objects he comes to use for his own gratification.

Despite the comic element being the one that has the most gravity, we get to see the torment that haunts addicted people and he too is a tormented man and his actions are a smokescreen of his anguish with his refusal to get hep only adding to his misery.

Quirky, fast paced and fun this is one heck of a mind trip.

There is no other way that I could describe this film. It is filled with some of the most crazy and strange scenes that I have seen in film. There was weird sex, masturbating, murder, drugs. Pretty much everything offensive that you could think of is in this film.

It made me laugh, cringe and frown at some of the ridiculous stuff that happened in it.

Deep in the storyline though, was an utterly captivating, yet tragic story of a man loosing his mind to drugs, mental illness and grief. In many ways it was this that made the film all the more shocking, but brilliant at the same time.

I came out of the theatre speechless, I had no idea what to make of it or think. Now I have thought about it, I can see how good it really was.

James McAvoy gave a perfect performance in the lead role. Everything about the character that he portrayed was realistic, and I could feel the emotion coming out of him throughout his descent into madness.

This film is not for the faint of heart or easily disturbed, but if you can deal with the weird and wacky, then you are going to love it.