[imagesource: Nil by Mouth/ trailer screenshot]

‘Nil by mouth’ is typically what the sign over an intravenously fed patient’s hospital bed says.

But for Gary Oldman, who has poured so much blood, sweat, and tears into his intense writer-director debut, Nil By Mouth becomes a metaphor for the horrible force and cost of violence.

As The Guardian‘s review points out, it’s a metaphor for “the dad’s dysfunction, the walled-off emotional aridity; nil by mouth, no kissing, no talking, nothing.”

Oldman, “positioned between Terence Davies and Martin Scorsese” has produced this emotionally-wrenching film inspired by his own father and his childhood in south London.

The story is so moving that it has been lauded with a five-star review and a Cannes award:

It is an urban pastoral and social-realist tragedy. Watched again now, you can appreciate how formally accomplished it is, how emotionally extravagant, and acted at full tilt by a remarkable cast.

Ray Winstone is Ray, the angry and self-hating drinker and coke addict running a shadowy line in drug distribution with his dodgy mate Mark – an excellent, garrulous performance from Jamie Foreman. Ray has employed his unreliable young brother-in-law Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles) who has evidently tasted the supply and got pathetically hooked on smack. Kathy Burke won Best Actress at Cannes for her moving performance as Ray’s abused wife Val.

Oldman has kept his family close for this one, with his sister Laila Morse making her acting debut as Val’s mother Janet.

Edna Doré plays Val’s grandmother, Kath, who releases a heart-plucking final song, Can’t Help Loving That Man of Mine, sung by Oldman’s own mum, Kathleen.

The generational trauma runs deep in this one.

At the core is an angry man and his tragic, almost unbelievable violence:

Nil By Mouth is “superior (and addictively watchable) because of its pure invention, energy and seriousness”. The review also references the set-piece speeches and verbal riffing that inadvertently reveal the vulnerability and pain behind machismo.

Burke also brandishes a Shakespearean epilogue towards the end, which is probably where her talent really shines through.

Nil By Mouth will be rereleased in cinemas today.

[source:guardian]