In a working-class part of South London live Raymond; his wife, Valerie; her brother, Billy; Valerie and Billy's mother, Janet; and their grandmother, Kathy. Billy is a drug addict, and Raymond kicks him out when he steals drugs from him. Billy hangs out with his heroin addict friends and they shoot up together. The family is dysfunctional, mostly because of Raymond's fiery temper and violent outbursts. When Valerie gets pregnant again, she continues to smoke and drink.

Valerie goes out on the town, and when Ray sees an attractive male friend of hers, he flies into a jealous rage, ordering her out of the pub and into the car. Back home, he accuses her of sleeping with the male friend, and pummels her severely, causing her to miscarry. He tries to win her back, but she leaves him and prepares to start a new life without him. In an alcohol-fuelled rage, he angrily tears their flat apart. He tells Mark, his friend, that the reason for his horrible behavior is his own abusive father, who was the same way with him and his mother. Later, he tries to reconcile with Valerie; however, she is outraged, and says that when she reaches 70, she wants to look back on this part of her life, as she is now 30, as a time when she had some fun. What she has instead is people feeling sorry for her.

Valerie does not want to return to Ray, pointing out they have not got a home to go back to because he has smashed it all up. She will try to find someone to be with that will love her and treat her kindly. Ray goes to see Valerie and asks her if she still loves him. Ray and Valerie are eventually back together again, and Ray has fixed up the flat. Ray speaks as crudely as ever but begins to restrain himself from his usual angry outbursts. Billy, and his friend Danny, rob a man to support their drug habit and wind up going to prison. This not only reunites Ray with Valerie but reunites the whole family. They go off to visit Billy.

• Ray Winstone as Raymond ("Ray")
• Kathy Burke as Valerie ("Val")
• Charlie Creed-Miles as Billy
• Laila Morse as Janet
• Edna Doré as Kath
• Chrissie Cotterill as Paula
• Jon Morrison as Angus
• Jamie Foreman as Mark
• Steve Sweeney as Danny

The film depicts the environment Oldman witnessed growing up on a council estate in South East London. Oldman's sister Laila Morse plays Janet and his mother voices a song in the film. The title is a medical instruction (literally "nothing by mouth"), meaning that a patient must not take food or water.^{[citation needed]} The score was composed by Eric Clapton.^[4]

Nil by Mouth features the word "cunt" 82 times, more than any other film in history. It also features 428 uses of the word "fuck" and its derivatives,^[5] more than any film at the time until Summer of Sam surpassed it two years later; but it remains the highest ranked (as of 2019) with regards to the average number of utterances per minute of running time, with 3.34 / min (leaving aside Swearnet: The Movie, which is more of a concept movie revolving around that very theme, and Fuck, a documentary about the word in question).^{[citation needed]}

Nil by Mouth received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 30 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Foul-mouthed and unrelentingly bleak, Nil By Mouth is a prickly viewing experience that nevertheless impresses with its authentic blue collar angst and ferocious performances."^[6]

Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5 out of 4, writing: "The film's portrait of street life in South London is unflinching and observant."^[7] Reviewing Nil by Mouth for its 25th anniversary, the Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw gave it five out of five, praising its performances and "pure invention, energy and seriousness".^[4]

The film grossed £142,200 ($230,364) from 61 screens in its opening weekend in the United Kingdom, placing tenth at the UK box office.^[8][9] It grossed a total of $266,130 from 18 theatres in the United States and Canada.^[3]

Awards and nominations edit

In 2017, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out ranked Nil by Mouth the 21st-best British film.^[10]

• 1997 Cannes Film Festival:
  • Winner: Best Actress (Kathy Burke)^[11]
  • Nominee: Palme d'Or (Golden Palm)^[11]
• 1997 Edinburgh International Film Festival:
  • Winner: Channel 4 Director's Award (Gary Oldman)
• 1997 European Film Awards:
  • Nominee: Best Cinematographer (Ray Fortunato)
• 1997 BAFTA Awards:
  • Winner: Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film (Luc Besson, Gary Oldman, Douglas Urbanski)
  • Winner: BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay (Gary Oldman)
  • Nominee: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Ray Winstone)
  • Nominee: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Kathy Burke)
• 1998 British Independent Film Awards:
  • Winner: Best Performance by a British Actor in an Independent Film (Ray Winstone)
  • Winner: Best Performance by a British Actress in an Independent Film (Kathy Burke)
  • Winner: Most Promising Newcomer in any Category (Laila Morse)
  • Nominee: Best British Director of an Independent Film (Gary Oldman)
  • Nominee: Best British Independent Film
  • Nominee: Best Original Screenplay by a British Writer of a Produced Independent Film (Gary Oldman)
• 1998 Empire Awards:
  • Winner: Best Debut (Gary Oldman)
• 1997 Royal Variety Club of Great Britain
  • Winner: Best Film Actress (Kathy Burke)^[12]
• 1997: Golden Frog Award:
  • Nominee: Cinematography (Ron Fortunato)

• BFI Top 100 British films

• Nil by Mouth at IMDb  
• Screenonline: Nil by Mouth
• Review by Eye for Film, of Nil by Mouth