Dark, bleak and brooding, Young Adam is a film charged with unexploded tension throughout. Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton are superb in the lead roles, conveying much in unspoken guilt as barge hand McGregor engages in an ill-advised affair with his boss's wife. The body of a dead woman appearing in the Clyde leads to a trail of unravelling that leaves a queasy feeling in the stomach right to the very end of the film (and only then do we realise the significance of the title).

Set in 1950s Glasgow this sombre recreation is a testament to Scottish art house film making (even if they did have to go abroad for much of the funding). The raw sexuality in the grittiest of surroundings is transformed by aesthetic cinematography into explosive beauty as we explore the innermost drives of the characters and work through their dilemmas with them.

This film is based on the novel by Alexander Trocchi and those that have read it may find more insight to certain scenes while others may consider this a let down but my own personal view is that it's an interesting film about cynical characters that still feel guilt about their own actions. Story takes place in the early 1960's in Scotland where we see three characters and a small boy living and working on a river barge. Joe Taylor (Ewan McGregor) works for Les Gault (Peter Mullan) who's married to Ella (Tilda Swinton) and they work and live on their barge Atlantic Eve going back and forth from Edinburgh to Glasgow. One day Joe and Les fish the body of a woman out of the river and call the police who take her away but the authorities have a difficult time figuring out who she is and how she ended up in the river.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Joe and Ella start an affair but it doesn't take long before Les finds out and since the barge is owned by Ella it's Les who moves out but while all this is going on the police have found out that the woman in the river has been identified and was dating a married plummer who is now on trial for murder. What everyone doesn't know is that Joe knows the woman and her name is Cathie (Emily Mortimer) and he knows how she died but he doesn't tell anyone the circumstances that could free the man on trial.

Directed by David Mackenzie this intriguing little film is reminiscent of the film noir efforts of the 1940's and 1950's although with all the sex and nudity it's certainly one that is played for modern art house audiences. The cast is exceptional and both McGregor and Swinton have built their impressive careers by being able to play such diverse roles and this is no exception. Mullan with his terrific face is one of those great characters actors who never gives a bad performance and he appears born to play a tough guy who works on a river barge. On the surface the story for this film has it's characters behaving like cold hearted cynics incapable of any type of sorrow or pity for others but if you take a good look what this film really is about is unrelenting guilt. Joe does feel guilt for his actions and Ella for her husband Les and the three of them are compelled by the trial of the plummer. Even though their guilt is stemmed for different reasons it seems to bring them to the same place but the film shows that not everyone acts out on their guilt for moral reasons. It's a hard story about tough skinned characters who seem at odds about their morality and that's what makes this film so intriguing.

I have no idea what the meaning of the title is, maybe something to do with Adam and Eve, but I guess it doesn't matter, this sounded like a good film to try, and the cast list was very appealing, so I watched. Basically Joe Taylor (BAFTA Scotland winning Ewan McGregor) is the young drifter who works on the barge owned by Les Gault (Peter Mullan) and his wife Ella (BAFTA Scotland winning Tilda Swinton),they travel between Glasgow and Edinburgh transporting coal and other cargo. One day Joe and Les find the body of a dead young woman floating in the water wearing nothing but a petticoat, and they drag it out for the police to determine whether it was a murder, a suicide or an accident. As his work continues, Joe starts looking at Ella in a different way, slowly and eventually managing to seduce her with his attraction for her, and with Les not around they start a sexual affair. As the police investigates the death of the woman, and they are putting the blame on her ex, we find out from flashbacks that Joe knows more than he is admitting. Before the death happened, he met the beautiful young office worker Cathie Dimly (Emily Mortimer),who he also manage to charm her, they start living together and have a lot of passionate sex. As Les becomes aware of the affair between Joe and Ella, that is when in the flashbacks it is revealed that the dead body is indeed Cathie, and she fell in the water by accident, after admitting that she was pregnant with Joe's baby. We also see in further flashback that Joe had an aggressive side, and back in the current time he is still keeping quiet about his involvement with Cathie. In the end Cathie's ex is found guilty of murder and no proof is found that it was an accidentally death, Joe leaves Ella and Les's canal boat with nothing but a guilty conscience. Also starring Jack McElhone as Jim Gault, Therese Bradley as Gwen, Ewan Stewart as Daniel Gordon, Stuart McQuarrie as Bill and Pauline Turner as Connie. McGregor, putting his meat and two veg on show once again, is really good as the conflicted and sex addict, Swinton does almost steal the show as the sex-craving barge woman, who also gets naked, and Mortimer in the flashbacks is very good, with her clothes off too. The film is just stuffed with sexual scenes, and with the dead body premise it combines film noir and melodrama, all adding up to a well crafted and most watchable period drama. It won the BAFTAs Scotland for Best Director for David Mackenzie and Best Film. Ewan McGregor was number 9 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, he was number 2 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, and Emily Mortimer was number 47, and Tilda Swinton number 44 on The 50 Greatest British Actresses. Very good!