Vera Drake

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

The brilliant writer-director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked) has crafted an utterly compelling movie about one of the most controversial of topics. An irrepressibly hopeful housecleaner in 1950s London named Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, Antonia and Jane, Shakespeare in Love) mothers everyone around her, from her own family to helpless shut-ins and lonely men living in tiny, isolated apartments. None of these people know that Vera also helps young women get rid of unwanted pregnancies, until the police appear and tear her world apart. Vera Drake isn’t just an inspired character portrait; through simple and straightforward scenes, the movie weaves a quiet but mesmerizing portrait of how people—both wealthy and poor—cope with adversity. Though wrenching, Vera Drake has too much life to be depressing. Leigh is deservedly famous for his work with actors; every character brims with truth and Staunton’s performance deserves every award it could possibly win. —Bret Fetzer

Barnes and Noble

On this side of the Atlantic, British actress Imelda Staunton had been little known prior to this film. But her Academy Award-nominated performance here elevates this modest but poignant drama into a definite must-see. The film is set in London, in the early 1950s, with wartime rationing still in effect. Times are tough, especially for the working poor. Cheery cleaning woman Vera Drake (Staunton) doesn’t let things get her down, though; after toiling all day in the well-appointed home of her wealthy employer, she’s perfectly happy to come home to a crowded flat and look after her husband and two children. She also, without fanfare, performs safe abortions on those who desperately need the illegal procedure—women and girls who have been taken advantage of in one way or another. The crux of the film is what happens when the police find out about Vera’s avocation and show up at her door. Writer-director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) captures the drama inherent in such a situation while avoiding sensationalism; the focus is not so much on Vera’s clandestine activities as on the conditions that make them necessary. The film doesn’t specifically align itself with pro-choice or pro-life positions but, rather, exposes the hypocrisy that surrounds this issue: illegal or not, getting safe abortions has never been a problem for the wealthy, only for those who may need them most. At its core, though, Vera Drake is not about abortion. It’s about a poor but proud family enduring hardship with loyalty and love. Ed Hulse