Ray: Ray Winstone
Valerie: Kathy Burke
Billy: Charlie Creed-Miles
Janet: Laila Morse
Kath: Edna Dore
Paula: Chrissie Cotterill
Angus: Jon Morrison
Mark: Jamie Foreman
Danny: Steve Sweeney
Nil By Mouth, is, for the first thirty minutes,
an easy watch. We're introduced to Ray (Ray Winstone), his wife Valerie (Kathy Burke),
Valerie's brother Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), Ray's best friend Mark (Jamie Foreman) and
Valerie's Mum, Janet (Laila Morse better known as Eastenders' Mo Slater and
also the sister of actor and first-time director Gary Oldman).
After that, and language aside if that's your bag - although if you do object to strong profanity
then don't watch this film as there's more effing and jeffing than a school playground, things
turn ugly as Ray, seen so far drinking fairly heavily and doing some drugs, wakes at 6am to find
his stash is missing and his son is No.1 prime suspect, probably because he's lanky, pale and
thin and does little but shift about uneasily. Oh, and Billy also has a tendancy to skin up.
Things than drag on for what seems like ages before the main aspect of the film is dealt with
- Ray's violent temper and his lashing out on Valerie, warning her that if she goes to her Mum's
or the hospital, he'll kill her. The violence was dished out mostly off-camera, but the next morning
we see the result of her injuries and I'm just glad that's only make-up. However, this film highlights
the fact that there are men out there who do that in reality and, to me, they rank as low as paedophiles.
Add to this, the fact that Valerie's also pregnant with her second child.
However, after the fallout of this and the expected anger and remorse from Ray, things never really go
anywhere. Ok, so that's life in general, and since this film was dedicated to Gary Oldman's father,
it's clearly autobiographical, but it doesn't make for satisfying viewing in terms of expecting a
conclusion, even though there's decent performances from all of the main cast.
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and is meant to look intentionally
gritty, so don't expect bright, vibrant colours on a rundown Cockney housing estate, but the
picture shakes sometimes and this is definitely UNintentional so there's something up with the
master there.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 but never makes use of it. It's not meant to be a sound FX
spectacle, but some atmosphere could've been used in certain scenes to make it stand out from
a basic Dolby Surround soundtrack, so if you end up catching this on TV at some point you'll
miss out nothing in the way of split-surround effects.
And you'll also miss out nothing in the way of extras either, since despite the fact it features
two great actors in Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke, the fact it's Gary Oldman's directorial debut
and that it's a personal film, there's not a jot to be found in the supplementals. It's a six-year-old
film so surely even some interviews were recorded at the time?
The film contains 28 chapters, subtitles are available in English, but the
menus are static and silent.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Nil By Mouth, is, for the first thirty minutes,
an easy watch. We're introduced to Ray (Ray Winstone), his wife Valerie (Kathy Burke),
Valerie's brother Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), Ray's best friend Mark (Jamie Foreman) and
Valerie's Mum, Janet (Laila Morse better known as Eastenders' Mo Slater and
also the sister of actor and first-time director Gary Oldman).
