VOD film review: Filth
Review Overview
McAvoy
8McAvoy
8McAvoy
8David Farnor | On 02, Feb 2014
Director: Jon S. Baird
Cast: James McAvoy, Eddie Marsan, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Imogen Poots
Certificate: 18
Filth doesn’t cover half of it. Jon S Baird’s film, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, follows the attempts of Bruce Robertson (McAvoy) to be promoted at work. He’s self-centred. He’s a racist. A homophobe. A misogynist. He’s also a sergeant in the Edinburgh police force.
Charged with finding the murderer of a Japanese student, Bruce sets about the task in his usual way: doing drugs, having an affair with his mate Clifford’s (Marsan) wife and phoning her up to make abusive prank calls. Then, he gets asked to find the anonymous telephone heckler as well. The cycle continues.
Embracing the depravity of Irvine’s text, this is less a movie and more a relentless string of repulsive things being shoved in your face – and James McAvoy dives right in. He grins, he laughs and he hallucinates with a manic glee. The success of Filth ultimately rides on whether McAvoy’s Bruce is likeable or not. Let’s be clear: he’s not. But that’s where the film pulls its biggest punch. Even as McAvoy hints at a good side, a tragic and traumatic past and a chance of redemption, his actions remain despicable – he’s a character to almost loathe or pity rather than love – yet he’s always fascinating, thrilling to watch.
The supporting cast do well to play normal opposite his inappropriate behaviour – Jamie Bell and Imogen Poots are great as his smart sidekick and a supportive female officer, while Eddie Marsan gives a wonderful against-type performance as Bruce’s spineless friend. Next to Bruce, though, they’re simply not as interesting – and, as his voiceover narration makes clear from the start, it’s either him or them.
Baird picks his side and rides it without looking back. Dream sequences with Jim Broadbent’s doctor are genuinely disturbing, while exhilarating editing practically rubs the camera in the squalor on display. In its hazy stupor, the only misstep is a subplot involving Bruce’s ex-wife, which reminds you of a Gen X film from the 1990s. Nonetheless, this is a riveting, shocking look at one man’s broken existence, driven by shame, tragedy and more – one that leaves you laughing and hiding your face in equal measure. It’s shameless. It’s entertaining. It’s filth. And it’s gorgeous.