Adapted from Irvine Welsh's novel, James McAvoy plays Bruce Robertson, a corrupt, drug-addicted Edinburgh police detective who schemes and manipulates his way toward a coveted promotion while his mental state disintegrates into hallucination and self-destruction. Director Jon S. Baird matches Welsh's caustic, transgressive prose with an equally unhinged visual style, blending pitch-black comedy with genuine psychological tragedy as Bruce's facade crumbles. McAvoy's ferociously committed, career-redefining performance carries the film's tonal whiplash between depravity and pathos. It stands alongside 'Trainspotting' as one of the more successful screen adaptations of Welsh's brutal, blackly comic vision of Scottish underclass life.