Director/Writer: Jon S. Baird
Starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots,
Joanne Froggatt, Shirley Henderson, Jim Broadbent
Synopsis: Desperate to get the Detective Inspector promotion at
work, copper Bruce Robertson (McAvoy) will try every dirty trick in the book to
get ahead. The only issue is his chronic alcoholism and drug-taking, getting in
the way of lucid transition.
The work of Irvine Welsh is
brash, boorish and brilliant. You needn’t have read his books to have seen the
impact of his stories on popular culture. From humble beginnings in Scotland,
his work has been heralded across the globe as caustic cult. Hear the title Trainspotting and you realise you know
the man after all. Most of his work has been adapted over the years, but due to
Danny Boyle’s pitch-perfect take on the heroin-fuelled odyssey of Renton and co.
the bar was set very high for future adaptations (most of which didn’t live up
to the power of the prose).
17 years after Trainspotting left its enduring mark,
Jon S. Baird has helped breath fresh cinematic life into Welsh’s work. He’s
chosen Filth, the story of a bipolar Detective
Sergeant trying to win back his wife and daughter with a promotion at work. The
title says it all; Filth is a no-holds
barred tale of corruption and excess, all the while laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Removing the narrative exploits
of Bruce’s tapeworm that takes over certain parts of the narrative in the book,
the film still hones in on the hallucinatory aspects of the story. Cutting from
a third-person point of view to a singular, fourth-wall-breaking address, the
world we see is warped. You often feel very close to Bruce (both compelling and
repellent) or extremely distant. It makes for a character you can’t quite put
your finger on and wonderfully different from the exposition-laden
personalities often seen in contemporary cinema.
James McAvoy as the protagonist
is simply superb. No stranger to lead roles, McAvoy doesn’t, it seems, always
make a grand impression on the films he’s in. Here, however, he excels like
never before. Snubbed by too many award ceremonies, McAvoy has rightly picked
up the Best Actor win for the few nominations he’s had. Shifting from drunkenly
ecstatic, to hungover and forlorn – with all those off-kilter exploits that
come in between – he expertly moves through the trials and tribulations of this
character. Helped by his Scottish nationality, with a clear understanding on
the Scottish and, more specifically, Irvine’s Welsh’s humour, McAvoy seems born
to play this part. Until we see another game-changer from the 34 year-old
actor, this now stands as his best performance.
With a sterling supporting cast
(including a scene-stealing Eddie Marsan), Filth
is a wonderful companion to Trainspotting,
complete as it is with a host of great characters. As easy as it to compare it
to Boyle’s 1996 film, there’s another similarity between the two – an eargasmic
soundtrack. Paired with Matthew Jensen’s dense yet demonstrative
cinematography, reflecting the tone perfectly, the formal quality of the film
is seamless. Baird has brought the tale of a Machiavellian, repugnant sort to
life in such an entertaining fashion you’re bound to be revisiting it soon
after.
****
Extras: Some hilarious deleted scenes, including an interaction between
Bruce and a naive American; extended scenes that don’t add a great deal to the
final cut; some funny outtakes; interesting interviews with many of the cast
and crew; best of all, a commentary for the film from Jon S. Baird and Irvine
Welsh. ****
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