Gary Oldman has been cast as everyone from Sid Vicious to a dreadlocked pimp, but his audience had yet to experience him so personally and so fully as in his directorial debut with Nil by Mouth. Dedicating the film "in memory of my father," Oldman opens the door to his life, ushers in the viewer, and then explodes all over the screen. This story is not for the weak at heart. Scripted by Oldman, it centers on a desperately poor South London family in the midst of unrelenting abuse, paying particular attention to the marital relationship between its two main characters, Val and Ray. Ray is an extremely violent man with a penchant for alcohol, and Ray Winstone's portrayal of him is utterly frightening -- at times impossible to watch -- while Kathy Burke shines as Val, a woman lost in exhaustive despair (Burke won Best Actress honors at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival). More than a movie about destruction and pain, Nil by Mouth is a movie about building oneself back up, and about the inner strength some people possess. These ideas are never made clearer than in the scene that follows a vicious beating that leaves Val almost unrecognizable. Val, her mother, and grandmother take comfort in each other, and as Val begins to dance with her grandmother, we realize this is the first time either lady has felt the comfort and warmth of another person in a very long time. This tenderness is ably captured by Oldman, who uses the camera as a way to shake out the ghosts of his past, let them be seen, and then forgive them.