NIL BY MOUTH

SYNOPSIS:
In a lower income South London neighbourhood, Janet (Laila Morse) is a middle-aged single mother with many worries. Her adult daughter, Valerie (Kathy Burke), is in an abusive marriage to Raymond (Ray Winstone), a no-good, alcoholic, chauvinistic creep. He constantly abuses her, and does so in front of their young daughter. Meanwhile, Valerie’s brother Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles) is a hardcore drug addict who, when not shooting up, is badgering his mom for money or stealing it from Valerie and Raymond. When Raymond nearly beats Valerie to death and causes her to miscarry, she moves in with her mother and grandmother, Kath (Edna Dore). Valerie and the others hide from Raymond who quickly begins to fall apart and become increasingly dangerous and destructive.

"Nil by Mouth is a gritty slice of life portraying one very ugly side of English working class. The language is coarse and crude, life is grey and bleak. And nothing seems to change. No-one learns from their mistakes. The characters are caught in an eternal and destructive cycle. It’s a film that is driven by mood as opposed to plot, and that mood is very bleak. Oldman’s film debut explores issues obviously close to him, and his skills in writing and direction are well displayed. All the performances are solid and affecting. The images we glimpse of the characters’ lives are so intense; aptly, much of the film is shown in close up, as if we are looking through a magnifying glass. There are some who may think that the glaring honesty of displaying every grubby little detail is great cinema. There may well be real life characters similar to those in the film, but Oldman hasn’t made me really care for them. I question whether we want to spend over two hours in this claustrophobic environment. The issues of drug dependency, violence, abuse and denial are ones that have been shown many times before, and there’s nothing really new here. At the end of the film, I felt exhausted and repulsed by the lifestyle and language portrayed. I just felt bad. So you could call it a ‘feel-bad’ movie. The film’s highlight for me is Eric Clapton’s complex, moody soundtrack, which keeps a rhythmic calm while the angst and violence rages."
Louise Keller