Customer Reviews

Nil By Mouth

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first heard about this film on Siskel&Ebert and I wanted to see it. My brother found it in a small video store and rented it for me. This may very well be one of the most dark, depressing,and brilliant films I have ever seen.
It's directed by Gary Oldman (known for his acting, or overacting, in Dracula, The Professional etc,) and he proves to be a great director. The movie is about a family with Ray Winstone as Ray, the father/husband of the household and Kathy Burke as Valerie. Ray is a working class lout who abuses both drugs and his wife. His son Billy (played by Charlie Creed-Miles) is a herion addict on the streets after his father nearly bites his nose off for stealing his smack. Ray is at times both scary and pittiful, mean and sad, nasty and pathetic. He intertwines these roles so well that at time's you can't tell where he is coming from, or what he'll do next. Valerie is just a simple wife who is just trying to keep her head down so she doesn't get it taken off. However even she is not imune to Ray's violent temper over nothing. In one very vicious scene she is attacked by Ray and although the beating take's place off-camera it still sends chills.
I must warn anyone who wants to watch this movie the it contains more bad language that any I have ever seen (like Pulp Fiction, Scarface, or even South Park) but the profanity only hightens the dread at times. It also looks at life in a very dark way. This is not a happy movie by any means and Oldman has produced a real masterpiece. This has great acting and real good timing between the actors. This is quite simply one of the best movies I have ever seen.

I am one of those people who rates a film on how much I think about it AFTER I have seen it. This film has stuck with me for the better part of two weeks and is easily one of the most original, realistic and powerful movies I have seen in a long time.

Unfolding more as a docu-drama than a traditional story, this movie brings you into the lives of a South London family plauged by a multi-generational cycle of poverty, abuse and addiction.

What separated "Nil By Mouth" from so many other movies about poverty and abuse is that rather than sanitizing it with obvious villians and heros, the characters all contain elements of both. As a contrast, we are also shown their friends, some of whom are worse off and others who have managed to find rewards and happiness in their lives.

Another factor which makes this film so captivating is that the actors truly inhabit their roles and show range and depth that you see from real people but not often enough in a movie.

Addressing the issue of violence in the film, I commend the entire cast and crew for not playing to the obvious shock factor or galmorizing it, but rather showing violence in all of its cold, random reality.

Finally, like all of the other reviewers, I would like to ask where's the Soundtrack?!? The music for this film is fantastic! If any Label Personnel read this, please consider releasing/licensing the music... there is a market for it and it's too good to leave on video.

You will not be able to determine that Gary Oldman's first film Nil by Mouth is an acted scripted film rather than a documentary. A great film depicting a working class South London family shot in candid documentary fashion. We focus in on off the cuff conversations, a junkie's (Charlie Creed-Miles) endless search for a fix, a raging alcoholic (Ray Winstone who also starred in Tim Roth's debut The War Zone), and their 4 generation family. As I said I had trouble grasping that the dialogue was actually scripted it's so naturalistic. Such a refreshing contrast to the Hollywood stuff so far removed from naturalistic dialogue it has little to do with reality.

I always considered the soap opera Eastenders to be worthless...kind of weird that the same kind of working class Londoners can be depicted with such depth and power as Nil By Mouth has.

Finally, the psychology behind Ray (Winstone) is delved into to the extent that this brutal guy retains humanity (unlike the Hollywood counterpart which would be a mindlessly cruel non-human monster). It's important to get to the root causes of such things and this great film does (by intentional implication).

"Nil by Mouth" is a movie that takes its sweet time to get going. In the beginning, it's filled with too many characters and dialogues that don't seem very relevant. But once it gets going... Boy, does it ever get going. It's a brutally honest and disturbing look at domestic violence, drug abuse and poverty, and while it's very difficult to watch at times, it's also extremely gripping. The two leads, Kathy Burke and Ray Winstone, are absolutely phenomenal in portraying characters that are much more complex than just a victim and an abuser (the exchange between the apologetic Ray and angry Val after Ray had beaten up Val for the umpteenth time, and Ray's monologue about his own abusive father, are two of the most memorable and powerful movie moments in recent memory), and the supporting cast (including Gary Oldman's sister Laila Morse in her debut) is superb as well. I think the movie's subplot about Billy the junkie ("Trainspotting" without the humor, if you will) gets perhaps a little over developed though. It is integral to the main story line, but it becomes too distracting at times.

Gary Oldman does a tremendous job in his directorial debut. The script seems very authentic, probably because most of the characters and the events in the movie are taken from his own experiences, and his cinema vérité style (minus the shaky camera, thank God) suits the grittiness and honesty of the film extremely well. The music is also excellent throughout. I know I'll never listen to "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" the same way ever again, that's for sure.

here's a list of the music used in the soundtrack of "Nil By Mouth." An actual album was never released in conjunction with the film but some of the non-original pieces are available elsewhere. Firstly - ERIC CLAPTON composed the original score for the film - I'm not sure if the music has featured on any of Clapton's recent releases. An unsigned artist (to my knowledge) by the name of FRANCES ASHMAN also has original tracks featured: namely "PECULIAR GROOVE" and "PANDORA" plus her version of Cole Porter's "MY HEART BELONGS TO DADDY." Most of the other music should be obtainable: "LAS VEGAS" - TONY CHRISTIE - MCA RECORDS "WEAKLING" - CRAZY TAD - ELEKTRA RECORDS / WEA "WHAT DO YOU WANT" - ADAM FAITH - EMI UK "BEI MIR BIST DU SCHON (MEANS THAT YOU'RE GRAND)" - ANDREWS SISTERS - MCA RECORDS "LITTLE SHEILA" - NLH with Spikey T & Saunders - don't know whether this is available. Finally, the version of "CAN'T HELP LOVIN' DAT MAN" mimed by Edna Dore (Kath) towards the end of the film is actually sung by Gary Oldman's mum Kathleen (song is by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.)

This film really knocked the wind out of me. Despite having very unsettling material, it is a movie that can be enjoyed for it's raw and unappoligetic approach.

Basically the film is about a family in South London. Their everyday life is not exactly the sunniest (to say the very least). The focal characters are Billy, a teenager with a horrible heroine addiction, Ray, a middle age man, who drinks and fights and beats his pregnant wife, Valerie, Billy's sister. And that is what the film is about.

This an interesting film. It is very anti-Hollywood. There is no real narrative structure to it. The film begins and ends with the characters being presented at no particularly significant places in their lives. Their is no rising action, or climax, but this is not to say that this film does not deliver several defining moments for the characters. None harder to watch then Ray beating Valerie and then destroying their flat in a drunken rage.

The performances in this film are amazing. Oldman has presented them in their environment, without judgement, and the results are so effective. Especially Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke (Ray and Valerie). These two actors deliver some of the most devastatingly realistic characters strugling internally, against their family, and against each other. The supporting cast does not miss a beat either.

Gary Oldman wrote and directed this film. He is from South London and curiously dedicated the film to his own father. This raisied an eyebrow from me. Indeed this film is so brutally real it could almost pass for a documentary. A truely impressive film.

Nil By Mouth (1997) immediately impresses just upon reading the cast list: the ever-excellent Ray Winstone in one of his finest, most intensifying roles, the wonderful Kathy Burke who yet again proves what a dynamic and versatile actor she is, Edna Dore, Laila Morse (now better known for her role as "old" Mo Slater in the BBC soap EastEnders), Charlie Creed-miles, Jamie Foreman, Chrissie Cotterill, Jon Morrison and Steve Sweeney. Fantastic, flawless cast - and in Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke's case, some of the finest British actors around. And, not forgetting of course, the stunning though brutally stark, compelling and startlingly powerful written screenplay by the critically-acclaimed Gary Oldman.

The story depicts the grim tale of a dysfunctional family living in the South East of London, exploring how some of the characters survive and their decline into drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence and petty crime. Never once does Nil By Mouth strike a false chord. Infact you will constantly be on the edge of your seat just by Ray Winstones intensely frightening performance as a hopelessly drug-addicted, alchoholic, wife beater. Due to the stark realism, you feel in each and every scene, as though you are standing right next to these characters, just literally looking on in horror - like watching documentary realism. This is not least due to the extremely high standard of acting, the racing rhythm of the razor-sharp dialogue and Gary Oldman's impeccable direction. On top of that is an effective and somewhat haunting score by Eric Clapton! Perfect in every sense in its intended mood and ethos.

Your heart will just go out, and jaw will hit the floor, to poor Kathy Burkes downtrodden character and the disturbingly real scene where Ray beats Kathy to the floor and kicks and punches her continually while she is heavily pregnant is just gut-wrenching and heart-rending. Due to Ray Winstone's powerful performance (as always the case with Mr.Winstone), you even manage to feel some empathy for the character, even in spite of the horrific beating he subjected his partner too. Clearly the years of endless drug and alcohol abuse had taken its toll. In one particularly endearing scene towards the end of the film, another dimension to the character is revealed, showing a more vulnreable side to Ray as he ponders on his life as a child where he was also subject to regular violent beatings by his parents. Not that that excuses anything but certainly the character is shrewdly structured to show exactly how Ray had gotten into this mental state, making it blatantly obvious that the continual drug and alcohol abuse, as often is the case, was to shield the pain he'd been suffering all these years. Occasionally you even get quick hints of his character wanting to somehow be a better, kinder person, but not really quite knowing how and sadly was difficult not to conclude that he'd reached a point beyond no return.

Also of note in the cast is Charlie Creed-miles as Kathy Burkes, heroin-addicted brother and Jamie Foreman, who comes into his own as Ray's loyal sidekick and its too Jamie Foremans character that Ray reveals his deprived and abusive childhood.

To watch how the characters interact, the fast, rolling dialogue that crackles along at a speedy pace with dry, dark humour, and some of the more powerful, horrifying incidents that take place, leave you endlessly fascinated. A credit to all concerned, especially to the explosive performances by Ray Winstone (my all-time acting hero) and Kathy Burke, and, of course, not least to Gary Oldmans riviting direction and screenplay.

Ian Phillips
August 2009

i may have to agree with one of the other reviewers on this one. i loved it and i really dont want to see it anytime soon. its devastating. i hear often that this was made out of the anger that oldman holds for his father. well your rage has been depicted like no other film. this film is violent and extremely upsetting(thats actually an understatement) but more than anything its genuine. it came from the heart and it must viewed at least once. you can see oldman on the television in one of the scenes.

First off, thanks to McIntosh for the music listings - I've been looking all over for the soundtrack and this should help to at least track down some of the beautiful songs in this superb film. Now about the movie - this is one of the best things I've seen in several years. It is an extremely personal, ultra-realistic story that will have you thinking about it weeks on end. For those who want a look at human nature and don't expect everything to be tied up at the end of two hours. A brilliant first effort from Gary Oldman, strongly reminiscent of Mike Leigh (apparently they worked together early in Oldman's career) - I wish it was available at a normal video price.

Gary Oldman's excellent portrayal of life on the edge in London. Aside from the excellent performances from Kathy Burke and Ray Winstone (not forgetting the underrated Charlie Creed Miles), the movie is beautifully shot in a very painterly, European style (the influence of producer Luc Besson perhaps) and features a poignant soundtrack including pieces by Eric Clapton.
Yes, one can argue that Miles' Billy is given too much screen time and Winstone is given too little to develop the narrative thread involving Ray's alcoholism, but these are minor quibbles given the overall strength of the performances. Also worth mentioning is Jamie Foreman's Mark, Ray's anecdote spouting best friend.
Overall, an important British movie by any standard.