Dirty Filthy Love

Starring:Michael Sheen, Adrian Bower, Claudie Blakley, Anastasia Griffith, Katie McGuinness, Anton Lesser, Ebe Sievwright, Elliot Cowan, Shirley Henderson, John O'Mahony, Daniel Kruyer, Stewart Wright, Bhasker Patel, Kika Markham, Mercedes Grower, Tim Stern, Malcolm Rogers, Mary Sheen, Michael Elwyn, John Salthouse
Director: Adrian Shergold
Studio: Hart Sharp Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
A darkly funny, quirky and poignant story of a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome negotiating his way through divorce, his best friend's matchmaking efforts and a woman who introduces him to therapy, filth and unconditional love.

System Requirements:
Starring: Shirley Henderson, Michael Sheen, Adrian Bower, Anastasia Griffith
Directed By: Adrian Shergold
Running Time: 94 Min.

Format: DVD MOVIE
Amazon.com
Welsh-born actor Michael Sheen gives a flat-out bravura performance in Dirty Filthy Love, as a talented man who finds his wife, job, and friends falling away when the symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder take over his life. During his downward spiral, he's spotted as a fellow sufferer by a humorous, numbers-obsessed woman (Shirley Henderson) who drafts him into her support groupat least, temporarily. A love story emerges from this, albeit an extremely offbeat one. It sometimes seems that the OCD angle is the only new thing carrying the movie, which makes it feel like a low-budget Woody Allen outing with a more severe neurotic diagnosis. Still, Henderson (Wonderland, Wilbur) is always good, the London locations are quietly atmospheric, and the stocky dynamo Sheen doesn't try to sweeten up the less savory aspects of his character. Every twitch and bark come from some specific place of anguish. --Robert Horton

Dirty Filthy Love
Average customer rating:

Sheen of Reality

Brilliant Character Study, Love Story, Dark Comedy

You'll Be Surprised, Pleasantly

A Small but Powerful Film about Coping with Challenges

WOW! WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!!!

Dirty Filthy Love
Starring: Michael Sheen , Adrian Bower , Claudie Blakley , Anastasia Griffith , and Katie McGuinness
Director: Adrian Shergold
Manufacturer: Arts Alliance Amer
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Comedy | British Cinema | By Country | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
General | British Cinema | By Country | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
Markham, Kika | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Stern, Tim | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Shergold, Adrian | ( S ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
Comedy | British Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
General | British Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Comedy | By Theme | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0007Y8AEC
Release Date: 2005-05-24

Product Description

A darkly funny, quirky and poignant story of a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome negotiating his way through divorce, his best friend's matchmaking efforts and a woman who introduces him to therapy, filth and unconditional love.

System Requirements:
Starring: Shirley Henderson, Michael Sheen, Adrian Bower, Anastasia Griffith
Directed By: Adrian Shergold
Running Time: 94 Min.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

Welsh-born actor Michael Sheen gives a flat-out bravura performance in Dirty Filthy Love, as a talented man who finds his wife, job, and friends falling away when the symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder take over his life. During his downward spiral, he's spotted as a fellow sufferer by a humorous, numbers-obsessed woman (Shirley Henderson) who drafts him into her support group—at least, temporarily. A love story emerges from this, albeit an extremely offbeat one. It sometimes seems that the OCD angle is the only new thing carrying the movie, which makes it feel like a low-budget Woody Allen outing with a more severe neurotic diagnosis. Still, Henderson (Wonderland, Wilbur) is always good, the London locations are quietly atmospheric, and the stocky dynamo Sheen doesn't try to sweeten up the less savory aspects of his character. Every twitch and bark come from some specific place of anguish. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Sheen of Reality.......2007-03-09

Michael Sheen, so good playing Tony Blair in THE QUEEN, is even better here as an architect who goes over the edge as OCD and Tourettes Syndrome tighten their grip on him. In a last desperate attempt to save his career and his marriage (to Stevie, played by Anastasia Griffith in a sort of combination Kari Matchett-goes-ABBA blonde hauteur), our boy joins a self-help group run by Charlotte (Shirley Henderson), herself a girl with plenty of neurological problems all her own. The movie is a bit of a mess, earnest, mawkish and nervous all at once, but it rewards attention especially if you like a good love triangle and don't mind some extremely inventive profanity.

The film is a litle bit like THE MIRACLE WORKER, in that our hero Furness is really living life at the extremity of sanity when Charlotte finds him. He's given up, he's filthy like a pig, he no longer knows how to cope with the detritus of living. Somehow though she recognizes his big heart and gets him to snap out of it, at least to the extent of cutting his hair, taking a shower, and trying to rejoin the human race. The scene where she asks everyone on the bus to give her their wet-wipes is hilarious and sad at the same time. She might as well have asked these poor people to part with their souls, it would have been easier for them to let go. Why is OCD so involved with cleanliness? It would take a Mary Douglas to give the picture a full cross cultural anaylsis, but on its own, the growing attraction Charlotte feels for Furness, as he shapes up and begins to resemble his former, mildly handsome self, is quite winning, even though the audience wonders, how can this come to a good end when we know he's still carrying a huge torch for Stevie?

Shirley Henderson's big black wig is like something Cher wore in her "Sanctuary" catalogues, but her voice is like liquid honey; in fact it's the same voice Joan Greenwood used to have in the Ealing comedies of the late 1940s, early 50s, like satin on sandpaper. It is idescribably bewitching, even when she's screaming abuse at Mark. Henderson has played many great parts in recent UK films, from BRIDGET JONES to TOPSY TURVY to the Harry Potters, but this vehicle is tailormade--it's the kind of part that Audrey Tautou had in AMELIE, except with more grit. She could have been a household name had this film been promoted properly. But that's OK, we her adoring fans can keep her to ourselves, a wonderful secret of modern cinema.

Brilliant Character Study, Love Story, Dark Comedy.......2007-01-01

A truely exceptional movie that won't leave you alone even months after seeing it. It is in accepting our "flaws" that we truely begin to experience life and love. Micheal Sheen, as "Mark," is mezmerizing as an architiect and husband who is struggling to understand and accept his Obsessive Complusive Disease and Tourette's Syndrome. His denial is palpable as he tells his employer the his problems at work are due to "stress."

After losing his job and seeing his personal life crumble, he hits rock bottom. With no where else to turn, he wanders into a support group where he,for the first time in his life, finds acceptance and friendship. Through the group, he is able to finally accept himself and find the peace that he deserves. Shirley Henderson as "Charolette", a fellow OCD sufferer and lead of the support group, offers the love that Mark so desparately seeks, but initally can't recieve.

The script, written by Jeff Pope and Ian Puleston-Davies, is a sensitive portrayal of people with afflictions trying to fit in to a society that rejects anyone who is the least bit "different."

The director, Adrian Shergold, allows the viewer to experience the film as a voyeur; watching the lives and challenges of these characters unfold as if we were walking beside them. "Dirty Filthy Love" is at once sympathetic to the characters, but spares the viewer nothing in exposing us to the raw reality of people living with these syndromes on a daily basis.

You'll Be Surprised, Pleasantly.......2006-05-04

Finding the humanity and drama behind Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and a condition that has been made light of as much as Tourette's Syndrome has isn't easy, but director Adrian Shergold and writers Jeff Pope and Ian Puleston-Davies have managed the job quite nicely with "Dirty Filthy Love." The story of an architect (Michael Sheen) who loses his wife and job due to the severity of his conditions, the film nimbly balances semi-tragic character study, humor, and love story. Yes, you're likely to find yourself laughing, which is fine; it is a comedy, to some extent. However, the film-and thus the viewer-never loses sight of the human beings behind what's happening. It's a credit to everyone involved-especially Sheen and Shirley Henderson, a fellow OCD sufferer who helps him try to right the ship when he hits bottom-that we giggle a lot less than we feel touched by these characters.

A Small but Powerful Film about Coping with Challenges.......2005-11-26

Beginning with a smart script by Jeff Pope and Ian Puleston-Davies (the latter a fine actor who happens to be afflicted with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and under the inordinately delicate direction of Adrian Shergold, DIRTY FILTHY LOVE is one of the more sensitive examinations of two challenges that affect the lives of many people thoughout the world: Tourette's Syndrome (complete with tics and uncontrollable inappropriate outbursts of foul language, noises, shouts), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (lives complicated by the need for order imposed by the patient's mind as a series of repeated behaviors that protect the person from the terror of living in a chaotic world). Wrongly titled (a title that probably prevents many people from seeing this little miracle of a film) and incorrectly billed as a comedy (which is most certainly not), DIRTY FILTH LOVE is one of those films that slipped by us all without a theatrical release but now is thankfully available on DVD. It deserves full attention.

Mark Furness (played with superlative skill by Michael Sheen) is an architect on leave due to his progressive illnesses (see above) and who is first seen in the throes of beginning a trial separation from his beloved wife Stevie (Anastasia Griffith) who can no longer live under the same roof with Mark's 'inexplicable' behavior patterns. Left alone with the anxiety over his surfacing deterioration from his physical challenges, Mark finds solace with his close friends who also tire of his behavior and insist he seek medical help. In the waiting room of a deaf-eared doctor Mark 'meets' Charlotte (the astonishingly fine character actor Shirley Henderson) and Charlotte, who happens to suffer from both Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as well as trichotillomania (uncontrolled pulling out hair strands to the point of baldness), senses a man who needs help. Charlotte tells Mark of a group therapy session for people with similar problems and Mark, out of desperation, joins the group (a fascinating group of actors imbuing their disease states without the least sign of parody).

It is obvious rather early on that Charlotte is attracted to Mark, but Mark's life is one directed toward making himself acceptable to Stevie. With a powerful confrontation at a very social party Mark realizes he suffers from a disease state he has had since birth and the only one who really cares about his dilemma and understands his turmoil is Charlotte: a strange love affair is finally recognized.

Scripts such as this are all too rare and when brought to the screen with the exceptional acting and direction rendered by this crew they become films that should be required viewing. In every way these are brilliant performances by Michael Sheen and by Shirley Henderson, yet because the film never received a theatrical release in this country (probably due to the factors mentioned above) it will be ignored by the Oscars. But awards are only momentary returns for art pieces of this caliber and this one is destined for a long shelf life. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 05

WOW! WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!!!.......2005-10-17

Ok sure, I was involved in the making of this movie, but i still think it is a great film..

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