Alternate Best Actor 1997: Ray Winstone in Nil By Mouth

Ray Winstone did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for BAFTA, for portraying Raymond in Nil By Mouth. 

Nil By Mouth is a striking directorial debut by Gary Oldman (and currently his only film) about a dysfunctional family in South London. Notable in his approach, and I think often the pifalls of lesser films covering similar material, is that Oldman doesn't pile misery upon misery, though there definitely still is misery, but shows the variety still even in a deeply troubled life. 

We see this in the character of Ray, played by Ray Winstone in what was his breakout role that led to him consistently working from then on, who in the earliest scenes of the film is one of the "good old boys" hanging around a club with his pals, listening to bawdy stories and of course drinking. Winstone's performance isn't instantly alarming in his portrayal he portrays this natural state well. This man just looking for the easy joys of life with just this sense of a temper lying beneath that state. We see this just in his briefest moment with this wife Valerie (Kathy Burke), and when someone accidentally bumps into him. In both interactions he's not immediately horrendous but in his delivery he brings the sort instinctual switch to intensity. The way he falls into a near violence even in a moment of just slight inconvenience. He doesn't suggest the man is about to truly break out in that moment, but the threat of it is still there. Winstone doing so well in making it the innate suggestion that seems to be the man's natural state of being. Of course this is within seeing the moments of the man just hanging around where Winstone is effective in calming enough to show the man being able to functionally have fun so to speak and hang around with the guys. He's on an edge of the cliff but he isn't always off of it.

The first immediate sign of trouble with Ray is when we see him with Valerie's drug addict brother Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles). Although their initial interactions are pleasant enough, just as we see some of Ray's interactions with Valerie. This is where the film truly excels and it speaks to both Oldman's direction and the strength of the ensemble how real they all are together. They just naturally suggest this life of the working class group whether they're home or out and about. There is the ease in their interactions that speak to a long history together as a group, even if there is very much a struggle within this as well. We see this when Billy, in need of any drugs, steals from Ray, and we get the first immediate outburst of Ray's anger. The ease of it in Winstone's performance is key as there isn't an escalation of it, it is Ray going all in terms of just how vicious it is. Winstone doesn't portray it as controlled or exacted, but rather this messy anger that pierces through in every direction. All of this becomes all the more apparent in his moment where he confronts Valerie over having played pool with a man. Winstone is many things in this scene, and all of them absolutely brilliant in terms of performance. The first foremost being downright terrifying in the visceral intensity he brings in the moment. This particularly as his voice so quickly goes from asking her about what happened to full on yelling in a moment. Winstone doesn't hold back for a moment and in that it is horrifying to watch. What I think takes this performance further than just a portrayal of a brute, even if it is that, is how vulnerable Winstone's performance is in the moment. The anger and jealousy is unquestionably there, but in Winstone's eyes and even in his yelling is a desperation of someone nearly crying in heartbreak just as he goes about mercilessly beating the woman he supposedly loves. 

Winstone's performance as the terror of Ray is that of a disturbing ferocity in the man, and so terrifying because of the lack of sense in his eyes in the moment. Winstone shows a man so far gone as he goes around yelling at his family that there is nothing but violence that is defining the man in the moment. Winstone shows the pivotal lack of sense of it, and the horror of the man just attempting to claw his way back towards his wife, who he beat so brutally, without a hint of compassion or care. Just emotions pouring out of the man in this feverish terrible pitch that he makes a proper mess. It is a mess of a man that is Ray who really only stops when he himself is beaten by a larger man for his behavior and left coughing up his own blood. Winstone's performance even in the moment is important because there is almost this shut off, even beyond being knocked unconscious of the rage of the emotions having a temporary release. Winstone doesn't portray it as Ray finally reflecting but rather being forced to stop his parade of anger via blunt force trauma. As powerful of a physical presence as Winstone is in terms of portraying the terror that is Ray when angry, his most remarkable scene is actually an extremely quiet one. We find Ray with one of his mates recounting his own past. Winstone's delivery of this entire scene is just flawless, from the way he opens in speaking the terms as though he is just talking about his life as he would at a pub. This with these natural little friendly asides he brings, but in that Winstone reveals such pain in the man. This as he speaks to his father the loveless drunk, and Winstone delivers every word with such a rich sense of the history behind it. In the moment showing in Ray the boy who never was loved by his father, and was so desperately looking for any love in the moment. This even recounting his father being close to death with such a somber description that is of a man so deeply scared, yet in the moment makes every word of this revelation feel so natural, as though he was just casually speaking to you. It is amazing work because he bares Ray's soul in the moment, yet doing it in a way that feels wholly authentic to the type of troubled man that is Ray. 

 

The last two scenes of the film one would "assume" that we see a "better" Ray as he goes to Valerie to apologize and to ask for forgiveness. In the scene Winstone is great because there is nothing false whatsoever in this apology. He shows in each moment such genuine love he has towards Valerie in the moment and the pleas are of someone who does deeply care for his wife. Even as Valerie counters that she cannot bear his anger and doesn't want to see her life as just misery. Winstone's reactions are potent because he shows that in the moment Ray is absolutely listening to everything that Valerie is saying, and in no way is this a purposeful manipulation. Winstone rather shows that really within all of it there is that stunted emotional state of the man who never received love and in turn only knows how to express his emotions in a few ways. In this moment we do see in his eyes the man looking at the woman he loves, even letting a bit of understanding that she is right in her rejection, yet it is all really of that of a child looking on and seeing his chance for honest affection moving on from him due to his uncontrolled temper. The final scene of the film is fascinating, a coda that takes place some time after Valerie then rejection of Ray, as we now see the family back together, except Billy who has been arrested. The atmosphere of the family again is so vivid, and within it there is the right ambiguity particularly with Winstone's performance. In this moment of joking and seeming love, he is pleasant enough in that moment. At the same time though Winstone's face still is that of a troubled man. Although maybe Ray will be on his best behavior for now, or even a bit, there is still the feeling that it probably is only a matter of time before his broken nature gets the best of him. This is a great performance by Ray Winstone. It is a terrifying visceral turn of an abuser, but there is so much more nuance here. Winstone's complex performance giving both a convincing sense of the horrors that the man can inflict, but also the deep seeded vulnerabilities that aren't antithetical to those horrors but rather help to define them.