Filth (film)
Filth is a 2013 Scottish crime comedy-drama 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 Britain and Ireland, 30 May 2014 in the United States. It stars James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, and Jim Broadbent.
Plot
Bruce Robertson is a Detective Sergeant in Edinburgh, Scotland who suffers from Borderline Personality disorder; He is a scheming, manipulative, misanthropic man who spends his time indulging in drugs, alcohol, sexually abusive relationships, and "the games" — his euphemism for the myriad foul plots he hatches directed at workmates. Robertson also delights in systematically bullying and taking advantage of his mild-mannered friend Clifford Blades, a member of Robertson's masonic lodge whose wife, Bunty, he repeatedly prank calls and asks for phone sex.
Robertson's main goal in life is to gain promotion to Detective Inspector, the path to which appears to open when he is assigned to oversee the investigation into the murder of a Japanese student. He slowly loses his grip on reality as he works the case, however, suffering from a series of increasingly severe hallucinations. These hallucinations become worse over time, and Robertson descends into insanity. It is ultimately revealed through dream-like exchanges with Dr. Rossi, his psychiatrist, that he is on medication for bipolar disorder and is wracked with guilt over a tragic accident that led to the death of his younger brother during his childhood. It also becomes clear that Carole, his wife, had left him for another man some time prior to the film's events and is denying him access to his daughter, Stacey, developments which sparked his desperate bid for promotion and also led him to start dressing as his wife when off duty in order to "keep her close" to him.
