Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Ho hum, get your mind back into the sewer where it belongs. Dirty Filthy Love isn’t about that kind of dirty filthy love; it’s more a film about a love that goes horribly wrong.

Mark is a man in turmoil. His life as a young married architect seems to be going swimmingly until his odd behaviour prompts his employers to place him on garden leave. Before too long, his wife, Stevie, is talking about a trial separation and Mark is living in the spare room of a friend.

Mark’s doctor simply diagnoses clinical depression, but a patient (Charlotte) in the doctor’s waiting room notices Mark’s odd behaviour and knows what it is. She invites Mark to attend her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder self-help group. Charlotte also identifies that Tourette’s syndrome causes Mark’s involuntary swearing and barking.

The movie shows Mark’s obsessions while he attends the self-help group (not wanting to sit down very fast because it might damage his spine, his inability to walk either straight up or down stairs and his cleanliness obsession).

Despite the wacky setting, the film offers some amusing and yet genuine feeling scenes. I particularly enjoyed the section where Mark delays a whole train full of London commuters while trying to move up the escalators. Of course, his obsessive behaviour of stopping on the stairs and barking frustrates those busy commuters. While I’ve always wanted to have the bottle to exasperate and delay a group of too busy business folk, I am fortunate that my behaviour would be voluntary. Mark has no choice in the matter, and he quickly tires of being the centre of attention.

I also enjoyed a scene where on a therapy visit, Charlotte demands everyone in the self-help group to hand over their supply of "wet-wipes". Her demands make sense when she works on getting the group over their cleanliness compulsion by forcing them to bury their hands in farmyard muck for five minutes.

Dirty Filthy Love is distinctly bittersweet. While I could laugh with (and in certain bizarre situations, at) some of the characters, the film also shares the darker side of the illness. Mark’s wife, Stevie, conveniently forgets the in sickness and in health aspect of her wedding vows and finds she cannot cope with Mark’s odd and eccentric behaviour. While she moves more distant from Mark, his obsessive compulsion begins to focus in on her. Charlotte is well meaning and concerned for Mark’s well being, but he pushes her away as he falls into his abyss of unrequited love.


My thoughts

Co scriptwriter, Ian Puleston-Davies suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and so many of the scenes and descriptions in the film appear sadly accurate. That said; I found it difficult to believe that the doctor confronted by Mark’s twitching and barking form didn’t diagnose his illness more accurately. As it was a minor detail, I let the movie ride.

Overall, I found this 2004 British made film to be both amusing and touching. I was surprised that it was made for British TV station ITV, an organisation not normally known for producing sensitive or intelligent drama. Thankfully, it avoided the Hollywood trap of being far too mawkish over these types of topics. Dirty Filthy Love certainly made me think about the plight of one of our town’s regular down and outs; a man who constantly mutters, talks and smiles to himself while earning anxious glances and hurried walking steps from concerned mothers. If the film can improve our understanding of the taboo of mental illness, then this can only be a positive.

Welshman (yey!) Michael Sheen, who plays Mark in Dirty Filthy Love is very convincing in his role and plays an excellent part in the film. Sheen has more recently generated bigger waves by playing Tony Blair in The Queen. His career is on an up as he is also playing Dylan Thomas in next year’s Caitlin, and David Frost in Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon.

In the UK, Dirty Filthy Love is classified as a 15 certificate. I would say this was appropriate for a film with one humourous scene of lovemaking while covered in chocolate powder, and a fair bit of swearing, barking and unpredictable behaviour from the main lead.

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This is a belated entry into rkingfish’s database dive write off.

cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2007-


Recommended: Yes