Nil by Mouth (1997)

A working class British family struggles with their demons -- sometimes violently -- in this intensely emotional drama that marked the directorial debut of actor Gary Oldman. Janet (Laila Morse) is a widowed factory worker who shares her home with her aged mother Kath (Edna Dore), her daughter Valerie (Kathy Burke), her son Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), and Valerie's husband Ray (Ray Winstone). Ray is an unstable and out-of-work alcoholic who often uses his pregnant wife as a punching bag, while Billy is a drug addict whose habit has led Janet to throw him out of the house more then once, only to take him back later. Janet is uncertain about what to do when Ray's latest tirade sends Valerie to the emergency room, and Janet also has to come to terms with the financial and emotional costs of Billy's addiction. Kathy Burke, Ray Winstone, and Laila Morse all received prizes from the 1997 British Independent Film Awards for their work in Nil by Mouth; Burke also received Best Actress honors at that year's Cannes Film Festival.

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Review By Laura Abraham

Gary Oldman has been cast as everyone from Sid Vicious to a dreadlocked pimp, but his audience had yet to experience him so personally and so fully as in his directorial debut with Nil by Mouth. Dedicating the film "in memory of my father," Oldman opens the door to his life, ushers in the viewer, and then explodes all over the screen. This story is not for the weak at heart. Scripted by Oldman, it centers on a desperately poor South London family in the midst of unrelenting abuse, paying particular attention to the marital relationship between its two main characters, Val and Ray. Ray is an extremely violent man with a penchant for alcohol, and Ray Winstone's portrayal of him is utterly frightening -- at times impossible to watch -- while Kathy Burke shines as Val, a woman lost in exhaustive despair (Burke won Best Actress honors at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival). More than a movie about destruction and pain, Nil by Mouth is a movie about building oneself back up, and about the inner strength some people possess. These ideas are never made clearer than in the scene that follows a vicious beating that leaves Val almost unrecognizable. Val, her mother, and grandmother take comfort in each other, and as Val begins to dance with her grandmother, we realize this is the first time either lady has felt the comfort and warmth of another person in a very long time. This tenderness is ably captured by Oldman, who uses the camera as a way to shake out the ghosts of his past, let them be seen, and then forgive them.