Love in the most brutal of terms (Nil By Mouth (DVD))

Member Name: shanediablo

Product:	Nil By Mouth (DVD)
Date:	09/08/08 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerhouse performances, Great scripting, Atmosphere

Disadvantages: May lack mass appeal

Nil by Mouth is a powerful drama set in South London, mainly centreing around the fortunes of Ray (Ray Winstone), the violent husband of Val (Kathy Burke) and Val's drug addict brother, Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles).

The film is the directorial debut of Gary Oldman.

The film deals with some serious domestic problems in the case of domestic violence carried out by Ray on his wife, and the wider impact of this on the entire family and all of those that know them. One other slightly less highlighted issue underlined in the film is the affect that Billy's habit has on not only his own life but other members of family, due to his dishonest nature.

There are standout performances from all of the three main stars of the film, but in particular it is Burke who shines brightest in her portrayal of a battered housewife that is desperate to break out of her cycle but constantly battles with the fact that she loves a man that harms her. Burke epitomises the gritty nature of what surely has to go down as one of the finest British films of the past 25 years.

This film is so powerful in nature, as with the majority of films associated with Winstone or Oldman but the near perfect screenplay, along with the aforementioned performances creates a quite simply stunning and atmospheric drama which can have you at a loss for words for a prolonged spell of time.

Gary Oldham had carved out a fine reputation starring as evil-doers in some critically acclaimed 'classics' over the years such as Leon and True Romance, but it is this piece of work that he can be arguably most pleased with as it was he who maintained artistic control and can call this work to a varying point, his own.

Ray Winstone is one of the quintessential British actors for me in modern times. He is typecast to an extent in that the majority of the characters he plays are what you would probably call 'real mans man' characters but he is quite versatile in that he can be both loveable rogue or complete b*stard. In this film, he is the latter.

One of our more esteemed dooyoo members referred to Taxi Driver as good but not necessarily great because it was 'so real and brutal' and I think in terms of British cinema, Nil By Mouth is to a certain extent, comparable to Taxi Driver because it is driven by raw emotion that is depicted in an often brutal manner.

From a personal point of view I found the film extremely powerful and at times difficult to watch because it is so raw and gritty. Some of the content felt a little too close to home for comfort (and no, not because I am like the Ray Winstone character before anyone has a smart comment to make!) which didn't ease things much.

For those that find scenes of domestic violence very disturbing, they might want to give this film a miss because although I do not want to give too much about the film away, I feel that this is a necessary warning. Because i'm nice like that.

For those of you that wish to purchase this film on Dvd, please check out play.com and buy it for £4.99. For that sort of money I would say that this would be an absolute bargain because in my opinion, this is one of the finest pieces of film-making in British history. But that's just my view.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/150456/Nil-By-Mout h/Product.html

Please note - this review appears in a much shorter form on my ciao page. This is more detailed and much more considered.

Summary: Nil by mouth