The Blabbering Inferno: FILTH. REVIEWED.

Filth (2013)

Rating- 18

Running Time- 1 hour 37 minutes

Directed by- Jon S. Baird

Written by- Jon S. Baird

Filth is a film I have very mixed feelings for. I didn’t know what to expect going in but after ten minutes I thought that it would be a film that I would really like. I left the cinema though feeling very disappointed and somewhat annoyed. The reason for this is simple: Filth is a film of two halves. It’s just unfortunate that only one of them is enjoyable.

The first half is a brilliant dark comedy. The protagonist (James McAvoy) is witty, juvenile and carries a loveable hatred of the human race. It is particularly entertaining watching him interact with his co-workers at the police department. During this first half a smile was a permanent fixture on my face because it was that kind of film; it was a relatively light hearted, enjoyable movie. So it was to my displeasure that this wasn’t to last as the second half dropped the comedy and just became dark. There were signs that the film was going this way but in my opinion it was too abrupt a change from the first half. The very same face that wouldn’t drop its smile a moment earlier (mine) now took a different form, a form that had only been seen once before and it just so happens that its previous appearance was on the very same day: when the vendor at the cinema’s confectionary stall informed me that they were out of hotdogs. That’s right. It was an expression of utter disgust. The film lost all of the qualities that had made it so good to begin with and what was left was a mesh of pretentiousness and unwanted darkness. It was more than a little disappointing.

But while the quality of the film’s narrative was inconsistent, one thing remained constant. The performance of James McAvoy. Which was very good. No matter what I think about the film’s tedious second half, McAvoy remained brilliant throughout and while I grew to hate his character, which I’m not sure wasn’t the intended response, I admired how well he played the troubled copper for the film’s entirety.

Perhaps if I hadn’t been so thrown off by the abrupt change in style I may have appreciated what the film was trying to achieve. But the fact remains I was thrown off so that sentiment becomes irrelevant. And while the film was reasonably enjoyable overall, I believe the following anecdote tells you exactly what I thought of the film:

After the film had finished I found myself staring into a bin, a bin that by rights should have had remnants of my hotdog in, and while staring deep into the pile of trash inside, I came up with a phrase that not only reflected upon what I saw before me but also accurately described the film I had just watched: ‘there are elements of filth in rubbish just as there are elements of rubbish in Filth’.

And yes. I realise how bad that was.