Filth (18)
Directed by Jon S Baird
Four stars

James Macavoy provides a real tour-de-force performance in this uncompromising adaptation of Irvine Welsh's controversial novel Filth.

Playing detective sergeant Bruce Robertson, he's a misanthropic megalomaniac seeking promotion who's addicted to everything from drink and drugs to sex.

He's in a state, it seems, because his wife has left with his daughter, who often appears as a fantasy figure along with the ghost of his younger brother.

You might imagine this is set in the Sweeney era, given there's rarely a response to his bigotry and brutalising of colleagues and crooks - until he becomes a liability.

His competitors are presented as caricatures, from the goose-stepping nazi, the "Jessie" and "lesbian," to the eager-beaver junior officer played by Jamie Bell.

Ostensibly, they're supposed to be seeking the killer of a Chinese lad but that plotline always plays second fiddle to Robertson's hell-raising even in exotic places like Hamburg.

There's an array of great British actors like Imogen Poots, Shirley Henderson, Eddie Marsden on display and Jim Broadbent gives us an eccentric shrink.

Not for those with a delicate disposition.

JEFF SAWTELL