Filth (2013)
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Duration: 97 minuten
Country:
United Kingdom
Directed by: Jon S. Baird
Stars: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell and Imogen Poots
IMDb score:
7,0 (122.470)
Releasedate: 23 September 2013
Filth plot
"It's a filthy job getting to the top, but someone's got to do it."
With Christmas just around the corner, Detective Bruce Robertson is finishing his work. He is looking forward to his trip to Hamburg for a riotous weekend. The last thing he needs right now is a murder case, even though it will give him a chance for promotion. A promotion he desperately craves. But Bruce has to overcome quite a few obstacles, including an alcohol and drug addiction, a dramatic deterioration in his health and a number of extramarital affairs.
Actors and actresses
Bruce Robertson
Ray Lennox
Clifford Blades
Amanda Drummond
Mary
Dr. Rossi
Dougie Gillman
Peter Inglis
Gus Bain
Bob Toal
Reviews & comments
remorz
-
- 2502 messages
- 2760 votes
Yes, nice.
Not the most obvious work to film, but the cynicism, the rudeness, the pace and the quintessentially Scottish character of Welsh' Filth is essentially well rendered.
The (timely surreal) tone in the book is played nicely and there is always more soul in it than in the indiscriminate transfer of events from medium. That the tapeworm, for example, is reduced to a cameo might be a shame, but it also shows a good assessment. Too much risk of missteps and not as important as the atmosphere.
I really like McAvoy - he had more reason to watch this print than Welsh, whose work I also fervently took in - but was skeptical whether he isn't too sweet to portray the selfish protagonist. In terms of appearance, I stick to my skepticism; luckily he has enough talent to convince you along the way.
Furthermore, not an ultimate high-flyer, but a faithful film adaptation that in many respects manages to translate its source material very adequately. Entertaining, fast, flashy and at times when melodrama is lurking, yet well in time behind the scenes, so is the ending. Too bad about the soundtrack, which borrows a bit too much from famous predecessor Trainspotting. But all in all very enjoyable. Hopefully also for people unfamiliar with Welsh's work, but I wonder.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Donkerwoud
-
- 8773 messages
- 3996 votes
Frankly, the premise of 'Filth' (1998) already caught my imagination when I once read a book review about a tapeworm being used as a storyteller. A parasite to behold the rotten state of contemporary Scotland in all its grimy ugliness. Still, I never got around to Irvine Welsh's novel, so actually I went into this adaptation quite blank. 'Filth' (2013) is a tour-de-force of ever-charismatic James McAvoy as detective Bruce Robertson, who jumps further and further when his vicious tricks threaten to be exposed. With a murder investigation as a reason to dig deeper into his morally questionable self instead of making the world a little better. His nascent madness personified with the aforementioned tapeworm and other (symbolically charged) substitutes for his turbulent emotional life. It makes 'Filth' (2013) a fragmentary whole in which the character sketch is more important than the final plot. It hardly gets exciting, and sometimes the Freudian symbolism feels a bit far-fetched to give the flatness an intellectual cachet. But it is certainly no punishment to watch McAvoy in this hallucinatory unraveling of a questionable human being.
Translated from Dutch · View original
UmbraVitae
-
- 4471 messages
- 4179 votes
Damn what a wonderful film this was, with a sublime James McAvoy. Story, black humor, great music, pure pleasure
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