Filth

Movie Title--  Filth

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 37 Minutes

Director--  Jon S. Baird

Cast--  James McAvoy, Imogen Poots, Jamie Bell, Emun Elliott, Eddie Marsan, Brian McCardie, Gary Lewis, Shirley Henderson, Joanne Froggatt, Shauna McDonald, Iain De Caestecker

A corrupt cop, believing if he gets a big promotion he will get his wife and daughter back, tries to do anything he can to secure his bid for promotion.

Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy) is a man that indulges in sex, drugs, alcohol and abusive relationships, all while scheming and manipulating his way through his job as a Detective Sergeant in Edinburgh.  Robertson enjoys playing what he calls "the games" to his coworkers, which are actually cruel plots he has set up to keep his 4 co-workers from getting the promotion they are all going out for.  

Robertson is asked to oversee an investigation they are currently working on, dealing with the death of a University student.  His pathway to Detective Inspector begins to look pretty clear and he knows that he is the one that is going to win the promotion.  As he is investigating the case, he begins to descend into madness and starts having hallucinations.  With the hallucinations comes heavy drinking and drug use, only causing him to lose his grip with reality further.

I hated this film.  Don't get me wrong, it is a serious roller coaster that has the viewer going up and down constantly with Bruce Robertson, experiencing his highs and lows as he does copious amounts of drugs and alcohol but a lot of it seemed incoherent and confusing.  The hallucinations are creepy as hell and even caused me to jump a few times when someone changed into something else for a brief second before moving on.

I think that James McAvoy does an excellent job in this film.  He portrays this man in several different mental states and the emotion and performance he gives is thrilling to watch, it is just too bad that it was wasted on this particular story.  The story was confusing until there was about 20 minutes left in the film.  That is just about the point that everything comes together to fill in the blanks that you are obviously missing through out the film and even then you hope that it will help save this film from being a bomb and it just never does.  

I think that if you are brave enough to give this one a try, please be my guest; you may find something about this film that I missed.  Until next time, Don't Forget the Popcorn!