Did it strike anyone as odd....
Did it strike anyone as odd, that Valery continuously drinks and smokes throughout the film, despite being pregnant?
shareIt's certainly odd; that's two of the quickest ways to harm your baby.
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MovieChat Forums > Nil by Mouth (1998) Discussion > Did it strike anyone as odd....
well you guys don't understand the stress of living with a wifebeater or living down and out in London then... because that's to be expected from such people.
shareTrue, I've never been in an abusive relationship, nor have I ever been to downtown London. I still find it odd that not even her mother bats an eye as she consumes drink after drink and cigarette after cigarette. And she was far enough along with her pregnancy to know that it was a boy.
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True, I've never been in an abusive relationship, nor have I ever been to downtown London. I still find it odd that not even her mother bats an eye as she consumes drink after drink and cigarette after cigarette. And she was far enough along with her pregnancy to know that it was a boy.
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i'm from that part of London originally and when my sister was giving birth i was at the hospital and this was back when they still had smoking rooms and i went for a cigarette and was stunned to see several pregnant women in there, smoking away. I sat down and started puffing and two of the women were talking and one was saying how she'd tried to give up smoking but it was too hard and that she'd smoked all the way through her previous pregnancy and that it hadn't harmed her child so she wasn't that bothered by it.
the other woman said, completely seriously, "oh, i kept smoking because i wanted a low birth-weight child."
100% true story.
There a loads of women like Val who I know who constantly drunk and smoked through their pregnancies.
You don't fully understand the characters if you bring up something like that.
It's the way these people live their lives.
Working men's clubs, spam 'n chips with HP sauce for tea in front of the news on telly, tea cosies on the teapots, 50 pence pieces ready for the lecky if it goes, etc,etc,etc.
And the fear of another fist in your face if you so much as look the wrong way would intensify your nicotine intake no end.
It's the most blisteringly realistic film ever.
What a load of rot. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for that type of behaviour during pregnancy, no matter what the bitch is going through. You may as well say its OK for the guy to beat s*it out of his wife because he is "working class" and he has no resources. Take a moment to reflect on the real resource free nations like the poorest states in Africa where there really is no education nor money nor hospitals ect...
You get the drift missy.
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I'd like to remind you all that this film is based on Gary Oldmans real life upbringing. So its meant to be realistic and what happens in this movie is totally realistic and spot on. Sad but true.
Everyone is pretty *beep* up, like most people today in situation's like that are.
It's not odd at all unfortunately - happens all the time.
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No it was and is not odd, people do it a lot in those environment. It is by no means right though. To to be honest, there was the question for me of whether the boy (I think they established that in the film right?) would have been happy knowing what kind of a place he was being born into.
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"Also in a guide book my pregnant friend was reading it says "Now you are 32 weeks you should try to stop smoking" so they seem to expect people to carry on what they normally do!"
While the ideal would be you don't smoke, if you do smoke and fall pregnant smoking suddenly can have an adverse effect on mother and baby.....most Doctors would recommend cutting down gradually while pregnant over the course of a few weeks.
I know the nicotine Nazi's will recoil and horror at a mother smoking while pregnant (or indeed anyone smoking anytime) but non-smokers do tend to be less intelligent than smokers so perhaps we should cut them some slack.
ScientistStrategistDrone EternalSupreme
I'm British and, though my mother rarely drank, I would imagine she smoked throughout her 5 pregnancies. Growing up as kids she smoked all the time. I have no reason to think that she stopped smoking whilst pregnant.
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