An on the edge , corrupt cop is heading towards meltdown . His wife has left him , he faces fierce rivalry for promotion but when a murder takes place it offers him the opportunity to achieve his ambitions and better himself as a human being
Reading the above synopsis you'll instantly be reminded of Abel Ferrara's 1992 film BAD LIEUTENANT . It's an obvious redemption plot and being based on a novel by Irvine Welsh and so takes place in the Welsh style . I've never been a fan of Welsh finding him both one note and parochial featuring stories that revolve around Edinburgh lowlife . Lumpen proletarian fantasy marketed for the non Edinburgh bourgeois masses . That said if you're watching a film in Edinburgh and the setting of the film is Edinburgh then at least you can entertain yourself by playing spot the location and in its favour this film has an anti-hero who shares the same surname as me
FILTH plays out very much as you'd expect it to . James McAvoy plays DS Bruce Robertson who is after promotion , drugs and casual sex and is a truly dreadful human being . That said McAvoy brings an empathy to the character and as the redemption part of narrative comes to the fore I did warm to him . If there's a problem with it then it's because it is a story by Irvine Welsh and Jon S Baird fails to disguise this enough . The first half is a bit too loose and we get the usual stylistic stuff you saw in TRAINSPOTTING as in voice over followed by jump cuts to drug taking and hardcore intensive naughty sex . Obviously this is used merely to shock the audience but in an era where terrorists murder aid workers and prisoners of war by cutting off heads with kitchen knives or burning them alive is an audience shocked by people sticking powder up their nose or having casual sex ? It's not like they're hurting other people is it ? It also comes across as crass and juvenile on the part of Welsh and oh so predictable . This is a pity because FILH has its moments even though it's rather uneven and the second half is much better than the first
Reading the above synopsis you'll instantly be reminded of Abel Ferrara's 1992 film BAD LIEUTENANT . It's an obvious redemption plot and being based on a novel by Irvine Welsh and so takes place in the Welsh style . I've never been a fan of Welsh finding him both one note and parochial featuring stories that revolve around Edinburgh lowlife . Lumpen proletarian fantasy marketed for the non Edinburgh bourgeois masses . That said if you're watching a film in Edinburgh and the setting of the film is Edinburgh then at least you can entertain yourself by playing spot the location and in its favour this film has an anti-hero who shares the same surname as me
FILTH plays out very much as you'd expect it to . James McAvoy plays DS Bruce Robertson who is after promotion , drugs and casual sex and is a truly dreadful human being . That said McAvoy brings an empathy to the character and as the redemption part of narrative comes to the fore I did warm to him . If there's a problem with it then it's because it is a story by Irvine Welsh and Jon S Baird fails to disguise this enough . The first half is a bit too loose and we get the usual stylistic stuff you saw in TRAINSPOTTING as in voice over followed by jump cuts to drug taking and hardcore intensive naughty sex . Obviously this is used merely to shock the audience but in an era where terrorists murder aid workers and prisoners of war by cutting off heads with kitchen knives or burning them alive is an audience shocked by people sticking powder up their nose or having casual sex ? It's not like they're hurting other people is it ? It also comes across as crass and juvenile on the part of Welsh and oh so predictable . This is a pity because FILH has its moments even though it's rather uneven and the second half is much better than the first