James McAvoy plays a drug-addicted, sex obsessed, bipolar police officer named Bruce Robertson told to hunt down the killers of a Japanese student. Meanwhile, he attempts to get a promotion to Detective Inspector, by playing games with (backstabbing) the other cops in the department. Hunting the killers is gradually forgotten, as he gets more and more addicted to drugs.
The book the film is based on is written by Irvine Welsh, the author which wrote 'Trainspotting', so my expectations were Scottish and crazy. I did not expect it to be this insane. The drug trips may not be special effects heavy ('Requiem for a Dream', 'Enter the Void'), but it feels equally as intense and far more brutal. The film starts off like everyone loves the protagonist and drugs help him become a crazy, unpredictable person, but unlike 'The Wolf of Wall Street', the film shows the dark side as it progresses. Events turn from "going well", "to very very disastrously bad" about half way through and things only crescendo getting worse and worse. As things get worse, they get darker and darker, as Bruce Robertson descends further and further into a drug fuelled madness.
The source material is strong, but the film also depends on the acting of the protagonist played by James McAvoy, Hollywood's go-to Scottish guy. He has never fully converted to Hollywood and has recently starred in many British films ('Trance', 'Welcome to the Punch'). In 'Filth', McAvoy lets his acting completely off the hook, and goes as insane as humanely possible, and then some. Ranging from fits of anger, to tears of sadness, this is the finest performance I have seen of his. Jim Broadbent is hilarious as well as the tape worm/psychologist. "AAAAAYE BRUCE".
"Filth" doesn't bore because of the increasingly intense, disturbing things happening on screen, but also as it's very funny. The scene where Bruce takes a child's balloon and lets it go, is funnier than anything in "This is the End", and that happened in the first five minutes (although Schindler's List is funnier than "This is the End").
TO CONCLUDE
An excellent, extreme, exploitive, experience which had me laughing all the way. The creators made the movie as offensive as possible, so if you are easily offended... Watch 'Sunshine on Leith'. Although, that's a heck of a double bill.
SCORE
81
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