FILTH (R) is a high octane adaptation of Irvine Walsh’s novel of the same name.
A junkie cop manipulates and hallucinates his way through the festive period, until he finally meets his match… himself. 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, 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. His past is slowly catching up with him; a crippling drug habit and suspicious colleagues start to take their toll on his sanity. The question is: can he keep his grip on reality long enough to disentangle himself from the filth?
While TRAINSPOTTING launched careers – Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle etc., FILTH employs a cavalcade of established performers.
James McEvoy is filthy as the politically incorrect Robertson, magnetic yet repugnant, menacing yet vulnerable, wilful and unrepentant yet rat cunningly charming.
His shrink is played by the certifiably shrink wrapped Jim Broadbent channeling an even more broadly bent Barry Humphries.
Jamie Bell is brilliant as rookie cop and Robertson protégé, Eddie Marsan, plays a Masonic brother Robertson who humiliates on a Hamburg trip, Shirley Henderson plays Marsan’s wife who Robertson seduces, and the always wonderful Kate Dickie plays his mistress.
Imogen Poots, John Sessions and Gary Lewis play members of the Edinburgh constabulary who contribute considerable casting clout.
Screenwriter and director John s Baird has infused this film with a kind of Kubrick consciousness and is unafraid to go meta-theatrical and hyper realist when warranted. His audacity pays off.
FILTH is a fun foul mouthed, full frontal, phantasmagorical pharmaceutical fuelled film that satisfies, and is destined to rank with BAD SANTA as a festive season favourite.