Nil by Mouth (1998)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blistering performances.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I first watched this when it came out in 1997. It was pretty powerful to me, and I just couldn't watch it again for a long time. I was young and dumb then, but all I could remember was my boyfriend at the time fell asleep and I bawled my eyes out.So this week I finally geared up to watch it again...And it smashed my heart into pieces again, with no less impact... This film is so hard to write about. Tin-Pot dictators who are kings of their own castles, and the women who support them.... What broke my heart was our 'heroine' played by Kathy Burke, the victim of her nasty, violent husband... He beats the sh*t out of her, she throws him out, he begs to come back, and you are just f**king cheering her on.... The next scene, he's back, all's good, no big reconciliation scene... This could have been the movie of my childhood... Drama, police, strength, followed by some mystery process and everything back to 'normal'. I felt like Oldman was watching my childhood then put it on screen.... This film has stayed with me for 20 years and I have never seen a truer portrayal of casual domestic violence. Kathy Burke was f**king out of this world as a strong, yet ultimately trapped woman, and Ray Winstone was a tour-de-force, literally, as a man who doesn't understand his own motives, who never will..... For me this is THE definitive British domestic violence film

Its very rare that I rate something 10 out of 10 but Nil By Mouth deserves it.What really really nags me is that this excellent film is poorly rated by Americans and Canadians etc that just don't get the lingo etc. Or the fact that Nil By Mouth is 'too grim' to applaud.I mean, had this been some less violent American movie by some A list actors then they would of gotten Oscar nominations and all sorts.The fact is this film is too real for most people. It has a lot of heart and reality to it. Its so gritty and raw and exploding with substance I cant believe how much Nil By Mouth is overlooked. AS far as I'm concerned this is the British Once Were Warriors, another great film but from New Zealand.I praise Gary Oldman for making such an honest, from the heart film. It is so rare nowadays to see something like Nil By Mouth.Kathy Burke is fantastic as the abused wife, and Ray Winstone equally as fantastic as the abuser and raging alcoholic. The supporting cast is fantastic as well.I really wish films like this existed today, sadly no one has the balls, vision or creativeness.Top film. If you think this film has no artistic merit then you really haven't got a clue. Its unique.

"Nil by Mouth" is a very striking and non predictable movie about absence of love or strange forms of love, agressiveness, addiction and other forms of self destruction and or the destruction of a family in this case. Here a poor family living in a working-class London district has too many problems to deal with that they don't see that they're living dangerously. Raymond (Ray Winstone) is a controlling man that starts to lose control of his acts after throws Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), his wife's brother, out of his house after he steals some of his merchandise. Billy is drug addict and he returns to Raymond's house to steal some things and that makes Raymond even more angrier making of him a more violent person than he is even beating up his pregnant wife Val (Kathy Burke). In the middle of all this confusion there's Janet (Laila Morse) Billy's mother a very hard working mom who also has to deal with Billy's addiction, and the constant menaces of Raymond.The plot takes some time to mesh but when it does you try to expect something very predictable and that's not what you're gonna find here. In the beginning all we see is a amount of funny conversations à la John Cassavetes between Raymond and his friend Mark (Jamie Foreman, looks like a mix between Neil Jordan, Dr. Oz and John Michael Higgins) one completing each others story (they got some funny and strange stories, the best one is about Mark's heart attack). The introduction to all the characters is quite odd and a little bit difficult to follow but when the real deal starts it becomes more and more interesting. Actor Gary Oldman's first film as writer, director and producer is very impressive not only in his writing but also in his style as director. The screenplay is very surprising, alternating drama with a little bit of humor and towards the ending a very breathtaking thriller. Oldman included many things about his life in London. You may feel a little shocked with some of the things presented here. To me two scenes were very powerful in this sense: First when we see Janet watching his son Billy using drugs in front of her, and she says to him "Go to the back seat, I don't wanna see it!" but then she looks at him injecting drugs with a expression of curiosity. Second scene: is when Raymond freaks out, drunk and kicks his wife suspecting that she has an affair. This scene and the aftermath showing what happened to her face is very impressive, almost hard to look at it. Oldman's style as director is brilliant. He filmed the movie with a visual of a Brit movie of the 1980's with the language and editing with a frantic rhythm of the 1990's movies reminding "Trainspotting" in some moments. His direction of actors is incredible and you must give this guy a credit considering that almost the entire cast is unknown (except for Ray Winstone). He really must consider directing another movie because he's really great. It might seem that "Nil by Mouth" has too many clichés about dysfunctional and violent families and that sort of thing but I think the way Oldman presented the story was very original, a little different than the usual things. By the way the ending is one good example. It shocked me the way things worked between the characters and how their problems were solved out of the blue despite all the running tension throughout half of the movie. That surprise was good but it might seen non-plausible, non-realistic and very weird to some viewers. I loved the explanation of the title (the movie's title didn't get a translation here so it was a mystery to understand it but Ray Winstone explained it in one of the most memorable scenes of the movie). See this movie if you can and be patient with its imperfect moments and the long conversations in the beginning. 10/10

A brutally honest, gritty, painful reflection on working class life in england. It begins as you would expect any film about working class citizens to begin... in the local, run down pub. But the 2 hour film takes you through honest and heart wrenching material which makes the text, as a whole, incredibly painful to watch. The characters are broken, yet we form a well rounded understanding of them while we watch the turbulent events of their lives unfold. The sympathy and distaste we feel for each character stems from a completely honest representation of them (and their situation) fed to us so truthfully by Gary Oldman. The story, whilst controversial in it's nature, makes for an interesting and turbulent ride through the back streets of London proving us with previews of drugs, violence a domestic abuse. A must see for any serious film lover. Not to be taken lightly.