Filth (film)

Filth is a 2013 British black comedy crime film written and directed by Jon S. Baird, based on Irvine Welsh's novel Filth. The film was released on 27 September 2013 in Scotland, 4 October 2013 elsewhere in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and 30 May 2014 in the United States.[3] It stars James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, and Jim Broadbent.

This article is about the 2013 Scottish crime comedy. For the 2008 Finnish horror film, see Sauna (film).

Filth
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJon S. Baird
Produced by
Screenplay byJon S. Baird
Based onFilth
by Irvine Welsh
Starring
Music byClint Mansell
CinematographyMatthew Jensen
Edited byMark Eckersley
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 16 September 2013 (2013-09-16) (Old Town Taito International
    Comedy Film Festival)
  • 27 September 2013 (2013-09-27) (Scotland)
Running time
97 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$9.1 million[2]

Plot

Bruce Robertson is a Detective Sergeant in Edinburgh, Scotland, who is a scheming, manipulative, misanthropic bully who spends his free time indulging in drugs, alcohol, abusive sexual relationships, and "the games" — his euphemism for the vindictive plots he hatches to cause trouble for people he dislikes, including many of his colleagues. Robertson also delights in bullying and taking advantage of his mild-mannered friend Clifford Blades, a member of Robertson's masonic lodge whose wife, Bunty, is the target of his repeated obscene phone calls. The only people he shows any genuine warmth to are Mary and her young son, the widowed wife and child of a man whom Robertson tries and fails to resuscitate after he suffers a heart attack in the street.

As the story begins, Robertson's main goal is to gain a promotion to become Detective Inspector, the path to which appears to open when he is assigned to oversee the investigation into the murder of a Japanese exchange student. However, he slowly loses his grip on reality as he works the case and has a series of increasingly vivid hallucinations. It is ultimately revealed through dream-like exchanges with Dr. Rossi, his psychiatrist, that he is on medication for bipolar disorder and has repressed immense feelings of guilt over a childhood accident that led to the death of his younger brother. It also becomes clear that Carole, his wife, has left him and is denying him access to his daughter, Stacey, developments which sparked his desperate bid for promotion, played a part in his unusual displays of kindness toward Mary and her son, and have also led him to start cross-dressing as his wife when off duty in order to "keep her close" to him.

While wandering the streets on such an occasion, Robertson is kidnapped by a street gang led by the thuggish Gorman — who are responsible for the murder — and badly beaten. However, he manages to kill Gorman by throwing him through a window and is found by his colleagues. Robertson not only misses out on the promotion as a result of the events, but is in fact demoted to Constable and is reassigned to uniform, while rookie Ray Lennox is promoted to Detective Inspector. Afterwards, Blades receives a tape of Robertson apologising. Robertson then prepares to commit suicide by hanging himself, but is interrupted at the last moment by Mary and her son knocking at his front door. He then breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience repeating his catchphrase — "Same rules apply" — and laughs as the chair slips from under him.

Cast

Production

Welsh's novel was published in 1998, but over the following years the project was passed between producers and acquired a reputation of being "un-filmable".[4]

Reception

Box office

The film earned £250,000 in the box office revenue during its opening weekend in Scotland, reaching number one in the charts.[5] It grossed £842,167 ($1.4m) in the following weekend, when it went on general release throughout the United Kingdom.[6] The film ultimately ended up grossing $9.1 million worldwide.[2]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 66% approval rating, based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 6.23/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Warped, grimy and enthusiastically unpleasant, Filth lives up to its title splendidly."[7] The film also has a score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8]

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References
  1. "FILTH (18)". Lions Gate Entertainment. British Board of Film Classification. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  2. "Filth (2013)". The Numbers. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  3. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1450321/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_dt
  4. Ford, Matt (11 September 2013). "Irvine Welsh: The 'unfilmable' Filth finally makes it to the big screen". The Independent. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  5. "Filth tops Scottish box office". The Scotsman. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  6. Sandwell, Ian (7 October 2013). "Prisoners locks in UK box office lead". www.screendaily.com. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  7. Filth at Rotten Tomatoes
  8. Filth at Metacritic
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