MovieChat Forums > Nil by Mouth (1998) Discussion > Why did he snap?

Why did he snap?

posted 14 years ago by yfguitarist
9 replies | jump to latest

What caused Ray to start behaving extremely violently? Because it's obviously new to the family by the way they react to it. It seems like he progressively gets worse through the film, but what is the cause of it? Is it that his alcoholism gets worse? Or that the environment that he's in just causes him to lose it? Maybe he was a bastard before the film but they all appear to be shocked by his newfound violent behavior.

Also, what's with the happy ending? I feel like there was a huge jump, all is forgiven, Ray's no longer wanting to kill people, etc. I could've easily have done without the grandma singing or the numerous shooting up scenes so we could've seen what happened in between.

Phenomenal performances and realism, Ray Winstone was amazing.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jac1973 14 years ago

Also, what's with the happy ending?

I never saw this as a happy ending, in fact I thought the ending just showed us there was really no hope for any of the characters.

The ending symbolised (imo) the whole cycle of violence, anger and alcoholism starting all over again. Valerie looks like she has taken Ray back after vein promises that he will change, maybe even layed off the hard booze and drugs for a while - but just like I image she would have done many times before, so in a months time, or year or what ever she'll be making excuses for him beating her.

I think they way they were discussing Billy in that last scene was also tragic. He was also a victim of his circumstance, and ended up in prison, with all the nonces (sp?) - the terrible bit was they way they all found this amusing. I suspect prison was a more secure environment for him anyway, so maybe that was a ray of hope.

Depressing film, with no happy ending.

I have to say the film was a masterpiece though, bloody depressing, but a masterpiece.

[–] fairy_depp 11 years ago

I thought the shock was more because she was pregnant and lost the baby, not just cause he beat her because he's probably done that before and knowing the way these things go round in circles, I expect that her mum and grandma were probably victims of domestic violence in the past too. Unfortunately women in these situations get sucked back in too many times because they don't really have anywhere else to go and we heard that she believed her daughter needed her dad in her life

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

I never saw this as a happy ending ...

Agreed. The cycle of domestic turmoil and instability is just repeating itself.🐭

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] texxas-1 8 years ago

You obviously must have fallen asleep during the film because it was quite obvious why he snapped. He was jealous because he thought his wife was cheating with Peter the guy she was playing pool with. Ray went to strip clubs so in a way he's cheating so that causes paranoia, so he thought his wife will be doing the same. Although that's insane since his wife looked dreadful but ray was never really bright.

[–] yfguitarist 8 years ago

I didn't fall asleep. It seemed like a complete personality change out of nowhere.

[–] TheArgentinian (7109) a year ago

he wasn't a violent asshole before that? yeah, you slept

[–] Rocky15 (509) 5 years ago

He knocked her about way before the film starts, there was no personality change.