FILTH

Edinburgh, Scotland. Home of intellectual enlightenment, beautiful architecture, the deep-fried Mars bar… and bigoted and corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson.

That’s Bruce Robertson out of Irvine Welsh’s riotous cult novel FILTH, brilliantly portrayed by James McAvoy in director Jon S. Baird’s audacious and outrageous film adaptation. So brilliant in fact that McAvoy was recently named “Best Actor” at the Moet British Independent Film Awards.

Detective Robertson is damaged goods alright, a deeply traumatized (and traumatizing) soul up for promotion but heading straight for the abyss! Called in to solve the brutal murder of a Japanese tourist, his priority seems to play nasty tricks on his colleagues to ensure nothing and no one gets in the way of his promotion. As it turns out, these efforts are wasted energy indeed, for what ultimately does get in the way is Robertson’s own monstrous Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde personality: a bipolar bigot and drug addict with an appetite for corruption, sadistic sex and stealing his colleague’s wives.

However, as he cheats, beats and curses his way through the film, Robertson’s past gradually catches up with him… we learn that wife and child have left him and that a childhood trauma he clearly can’t get to grips with gets the better of his increasing insanity, resulting in his cross-dressing in order to take on the persona of his estranged wife.

Jamie Bell plays Ray Lennox, a fellow colleague in the police force who fares fairly mildly considering Robertson’s penchant for disturbing games. Instead, it’s gentle and passive-naive colleague Clifford Blades (Eddie Marsan) who ends up bearing the brunt, what with Robertson spiking his drink during a trip to Germany, generally kicking him about, and shamelessly starting an affair with Blades tarty but likeable and frustrated wife Bunty (Shirley Henderson).

Jim Broadbent slips into the role of Dr. Rossi, Robertson’s psychologist. The sequences between Rossi and Robertson turn out to be the most hallucinogenic and surreal ones in the entire movie, with Rossi prescribing ever-higher doses of pills in an effort to combat Robertson’s increasingly unstable mental condition. Although cleverly executed and as colourful as the swear words in the film, these sequences don’t always emphasize Robertson’s condition but occasionally distract from it.

FILTH is Irvine Welsh’s third novel and just like TRAINSPOTTING focuses on Edinburgh’s nitty-gritty underbelly as well as the more sordid and sleazy aspects of the city.
The film adaptation perfectly captures these darker elements, and by doing so provides one of the most disturbing, hilarious and twisted movies of the year!

Blu-ray, Steelbook and DVD contain the following Extras:

• Audio Commentary with Jon S Baird & Irvine Welsh
• Deleted Scenes
• Extended Scenes
• Outtakes
• Interviews