Filth - filthy shades of grey

Based on an apparently unfilmable book by Irvine Welsh, Filth was released last year to somewhat muted responses by the general public.  Seems that for some reason the story of a misanthropic bent Edinburgh copper didn't excite that many people in the British film-going population.  To be fair, I didn't have any great urge to go and see it in the cinema either.  The trailer was pretty quiet on what the film was actually about, instead it focused on the various levels of corruption, debauchery and violence that a scattered throughout the life of our main protagonist - detective Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy).

Bruce Robertson is a terrible person.  He is a bigoted misanthrope detective on the Edinburgh police force who gets his kicks out of ruining other peoples' lives while trying to get a promotion.  He is constantly pining for his now-departed wife, and clearly struggles to deal with a number of psychological problems dating back to his youth.  It is this man's world that we are dumped into at the start of Filth, specifically his attempts to secure the promotion by back-stabbing everyone else who might get in his way.  In the meantime, he is making obscene phone calls to his best friend's wife and doing the bare minimum to do his job - which is to investigate a murder that happens in the film's opening scene.

The film is set in the middle of the malaise that is modern Scotland (and my extension the rest of the UK).  In a world troubled by vested interests, drug abuse and sometimes violent pornography, it is perhaps unsurprising that many - like Bruce - can see no salvation for humanity and react with appropriate disdain.  McAvoy plays the character with some glee, in a way that makes him deeply unsympathetic and at the same time vulnerable and interesting.  Whatever you want to think the film might be implying about life in contemporary Scotland, it's a very entertaining film that's funny and extremely dark.  It's a great watch.

Having now read more about the book, I think that the screen writer has done a very good job of capturing a lot of that in this film adaptation.  The film uses monologues from different characters, uncertain points of view, dream sequences and psychotic episodes (or are they real) to paint a mysterious picture of Robertson's world and mind.  The film ends in quite a different way to the book, a way that portrays Robertson in a much more sympathetic light.  Perhaps that's a bad thing as it gives the character an out that he doesn't deserve.  Perhaps its a good thing as it reminds us that concepts of good and evil in people aren't really as black and white as some might want to believe - it's all about the shades of grey.  Filthy shades of grey*.

* feedback on this pun isn't needed - I know it's rubbish, but it's all I've got.