Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke
There is a scene late in this harrowingly painful drama in which four generations of women in a working-class family sit around having a jolly time at a London pub. The elderly matriarch gets onstage and warbles Kern and Hammerstein's "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." It's a lovely song, but the lyrics ("He can come home as late as can be/Home without him ain't no home to me/Can't help lovin' dat man of mine"), given what has just gone on in the film, are horrifying. In a drunken rage, the husband of one of the women has brutally kicked and punched her, causing her to miscarry. He has begged her to forgive him, to take him back. Maybe she will.
Nil by Mouth is written and directed by actor Gary Oldman (Air Force One) and is based on his own profoundly dysfunctional family and hardscrabble upbringing in South London. Obviously a form of therapy for him, Nil by Mouth is the opposite of a feel-good film; it's a feel-bad movie. Oldman has gotten fine, raw-edged performances from his cast, particularly from Winstone as the alcoholic, abusive husband and Burke, who won a best actress award at last spring's Cannes International Film Festival, as his ill-treated spouse. (R)
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