Vera Drake: Movie & DVD Review

(Originally published Oct. 22, 2004)

The new Mike Leigh movie, "Vera Drake," is set in North London in 1950. It stars Imelda Staunton as Vera, a cheerful woman who cleans the homes of the rich, yet who lives in a world that smacks of Dickens.

As played by Staunton in one of the year's best performances, Vera is a small, sturdy-looking woman with a round, weathered face that's surprisingly bright in spite of being pinched so hard by life.

She takes care of a demanding family that loves her, and she tends to an ailing mother who needs her more than she'd like to admit. Vera is the life of the picture, which is ironic since a good deal of her time is spent performing secret, backstreet abortions on women "who have gotten themselves in trouble."

It's something her family knows nothing about, especially her mechanic husband, Stan (Philip Davis), who considers his wife to be a "diamond, that one." But since even the best diamonds don't reveal their flaws easily, Vera's flaw has long remained hidden. For the better part of 20 years, she has been living a lie.

This excellent film, which Leigh ("Secrets & Lies," "Topsy-Turvy") based on his own script, takes an irrevocable turn when Vera is arrested by the police after one of her abortions goes wrong. When she is caught, the police learn that she has performed hundreds of abortions for free. She does so because she knows that the women who come to her seeking an abortion have financial means as meager as her own. They can't afford the luxury of a private clinic - as the daughter of Vera's employer can - so Vera performs the abortions herself.

Obviously, audiences will be divided about "Vera Drake." Some will see her as a saint, others as the face of evil, and others still will see her as Leigh does - complex and human, a good woman with a good heart who believes she is doing the right thing yet who is rendered still the moment the law slams her life shut.

Leigh never moralizes here; he simply allows the events to unravel and reveal themselves to Vera, to her family and to us. For Staunton, a vibrant, award-winning stage and television actress in England, this allows for a performance that becomes almost purely physical. So stunned and ashamed is Vera by her situation, words and movement become a near impossibility. It's her eyes that reveal the truth of what she's feeling, and that truth is devastating.

Backed by an outstanding cast that includes Daniel Mays as Vera's son, Sid, and Alex Kelly as her shy daughter, Ethel, "Vera Drake" is among the year's best movies, with a performance by Staunton that has been receiving awards, nominations and accolades since the film's release - and which might just win her the Academy Award.

Grade: A