Filth
Starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Jim Broadbent
Director: Jon S. Baird
Rating: 3.5/5
Filth is the latest of Irvine Welsh’s novels to be adapted for the big screen as Jon S. Baird returns to the director’s chair for the first time since Cass.
It has already been a busy 2013 from actor James McAvoy, but Filth is one of his most daring and outrageous roles to date as he plays copper Bruce Robinson.
Scheming Bruce Robertson, a bigoted and corrupt policeman, is in line for a promotion and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
Enlisted to solve a brutal murder and threatened by the aspirations of his colleagues, including Ray Lennox (Bell), Bruce sets about ensuring their ruin, right under the nose of unwitting Chief Inspector Toal.
As he turns his colleagues against one another by stealing their wives and exposing their secrets, Bruce starts to lose himself in a web of deceit that he can no longer control.
This movie 100% belongs to James McAvoy as he delivers one of the performances of his career as this complex and twisted central character.
McAvoy pushes this character right to the edge - and yet he never tips over to the point where it becomes farcical or ridiculous. Bruce is a character that you should loathe, and yet you can’t help but like him.
And that is the real achievement of McAvoy and director Baird as they have made this vile creature into a human being. By suggesting that he has suffered past trauma and that he was a good man, you start to feel empathy and sympathy for Bruce; you really do want to see him turn his life around.
Filth is a bonkers movie from start to finish and yet it captures the originality and the subversion that made Trainspotting such a hit; it does this without ever trying to be or recreate images from the nineties hit.
This is a brave and bold movie from director Baird and it is certainly set to be a film that will put the director on the map - he really does deserve some recognition after pulling a project like this off.
Filth is a dark, demented and savage and yet it is a film that really does draw you in and hold your attention from start to finish.
This is a great portrait of self destruction and Baird really has got the best out of his fantastic cast especially McAvoy.
Filth is out now
Tagged in James McAvoy