Dirty Filthy Love
Dirty Filthy Love | |
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Granada Television Christine Langan | |
Running time | 93 minutes [1] |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 26 September 2004 |
Dirty Filthy Love is a British
Directed by Adrian Shergold, the film was first broadcast by ITV on 26 September 2004. It was written by Jeff Pope and Ian Puleston-Davies, who suffers from OCD himself. In addition to Michael Sheen, the cast features Shirley Henderson, Anastasia Griffith, Adrian Bower and Claudie Blakley.
Sheen's performance was recognised with a Best Actor nomination at the 2005
Plot
Mark Furness (Sheen), once a successful architect, finds it increasingly difficult to control his "bad habits", such as climbing stairs in a strange sequence, swearing involuntarily and washing himself compulsively. His wife, Stevie (Griffith) asks him to leave their home, so he seeks solace with his best friends Nathan (Bower) and Kathy (Blakley), who take him under their wing.
His life gets even worse when, at a meeting with his employers, he finds himself swearing uncontrollably and loses his job. Accepting that he is unwell, Mark visits a doctor, already convinced he is suffering from a
Mark tries to beat his disease and begins to make some progress despite the news that his wife is petitioning him for divorce. While meeting her to discuss terms - after covering himself in chocolate powder to combat his obsessive cleanliness - Mark and Stevie have sex. Mark interprets this as a sign that they will be reunited, but Charlotte warns it is nothing but "
This plunges Mark into
Nathan contacts Charlotte and tells her of Mark's current state and she goes to see Mark and offer him comfort. Then helps clean up his new home and his appearance. She then suggests they go for a drive to the seaside and Mark has her drive to the beach where Stevie's parents live in an attempt to try and find Stevie and the man she's seeing. But Charlotte scolds Mark insisting that Stevie is nothing but an "obsession" and that he has to move on. Mark Shows Charlotte a piece of architecture he admires and she reveals her talent for playing violin. The two share a kiss but Mark runs back to Stevie's parents home, upsetting Charlotte.
Despite being turned out by Stevie's Dad, Mark sneaks into the back garden where a party is going on. Seeing Stevie with her new partner "Gareth" the man who took over Mark's office job. He demands why Stevie didn't tell him. A disgusted Stevie requests his removal, Gareth tries to lead Mark away but Mark head-butts Gareth into the pool. Stevie yells at Mark causing him to collapse in a state on the floor. Charlotte arrives to comfort Mark and tries talk sense to Stevie, who just ignores all Charlotte's explanations and rudely orders them to leave. Charlotte slaps Stevie for her cruelty to Mark, in retaliation Stevie pulls Charlotte's long hair which is really a wig worn to disguise her hair loss from trichotillomania, she runs off in tears.
Mark, finally seeing sense, takes back the wig and asks Stevie why she came to him the afternoon they had sex. Stevie calmly tells him that she only wanted things to go back to normal and have "her Mark" back. Mark declares that he had always had OCD and always will and bids Stevie farewell. He finds a tearful Charlotte on the beach and, recognizing her true worth, they begin a romantic relationship themselves.
Cast
- Michael Sheen as Mark
- Shirley Henderson as Charlotte
- Adrian Bower as Nathan
- Claudie Blakley as Kathy
- Anastasia Griffith as Stevie
- Katie McGuinness as Alison
- Anton Lesser as Charles
- Ebe Sievwright as Tom
- Elliot Cowan as Gareth
- Rupert Young as Josh
- John O'Mahony as Dr. Dunphy
- Daniel Kruyer as Cabbie
- Stewart Wright as Rhori
- Bhasker Patel as Hasim
- Kika Markham as Geraldine
- Mercedes Grower as Gemma
- Tim Stern as Kenneth
External links
- Dirty Filthy Love at IMDb