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| Vera Drake |
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  (5/10)
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Runtime: 125 |
| Public Rating: 8.55 (62 votes) |
Director: Mike Leigh |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama |
Year: 2004 |
| Writer(s): Mike Leigh |
| Distributor: Fine Line Features |
| Reviewed by: Le Apprenti |
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The year is 1950. Great Britain is on the road to recovery from World War II. Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) is a blessed soul. Her entire life is devoted to helping people. She divides her day between seeing to the needs of her parents and working as a cleaner in the houses of her several wealthy employers. Her husband Stan (Philip Davis) is a mechanic at his brother's auto-repair shop, her daughter Ethel (Alex Kelly) works at a light-bulb factory, and her son Sid (Daniel Mays) is an apprentice tailor. They are a close-knit, happy family. On occasions, Vera goes out to help girls with personal problems they are too ashamed to speak about. Nothing extraordinary, really. Or is it?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, including charity. As director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) delves deeper into Vera's occasional charity for distressed girls, an eerie feeling is gradually realized. Vera, who has never been to medical school nor is a licensed physician, performs illegal abortions. She networks with her former co-worker turned black-marketeer Lily (Ruth Sheen) to help the girls, who are of middle-class and below. Unbeknownst to Vera, the girls pay Lily an upfront fee before they are sent to her (with caution not to speak of the payment). As far as Vera is concerned, she is doing a wonderful thing.
But that is only half the story of Vera Drake. The other half is the All in the Family angle. Stan is very close to his brother Frank, who dotes on him (and his family). Frank and his somewhat stuck-up, materialistic wife Joyce (Heather Craney) are about to start a family. Stan and Vera's son Sid is jovial, outgoing and enjoys hanging out with his friends. Daughter Ethel is the exact opposite, extremely shy and quiet. That does not stop her from being courted (and proposed marriage) by family friend Reg (Eddie Marsan), who is quite stoic himself. Vera's secret charity for distressed girls comes colliding with Ethel and Reg's engagement party when the police show up at her home.
One of Leigh's endearing qualities as a writer is the colorful characters, and fleshing them out well with minimal screen time. Within half-an-hour, he has not only introduced Vera's entire family (including her parents) but also told everything about them. Even black-marketeer Lily has a deep humanity to her, other than being the middle-person who helps (herself too) the girls' problems. Leigh even has time for Susan (Sally Hawkins), the daughter of a wealthy lady whose house Vera cleans. Susan is date-raped but does not solicit Vera's charity. Because of her background, she is able to afford the expensive medical fees to terminate her unwanted pregnancy.
The dual narrative of a domestic family melodrama interspersed with a crime drama in Vera Drake, with a third social commentary on abortion during the 1950's, proves to be an uneven juggling act. By sandwiching Vera's illegal abortion practice between the lives of her family members, Leigh makes it appear as if another casual good deed is being done. This maximizes the later drama of consequences and ramifications. Such as when one of her 'patients' suffers serious complications that require hospital (and subsequently police) attention, and the ramifications upon the family members as they try to cope not only with the revelation of Vera's action but also the realization that she is going to prison.
What happens when Vera is arrested is sheer anguish, not just from the non-stop weeping that results but also for the audience having to sit through it. The pace picks up only to drag painstakingly through the interrogations, court proceedings, family discourses and sentencing, as if trudging through thick phlegm. Is Leigh trying to court sympathy with close-ups upon close-ups of Staunton bawling her eyes out? It gets irritating after a while. Even though she is naive about the nature of her charity, she has committed a crime and must take responsibility for it. No amount of tears is going to change that.
Staunton carries the title role very well, particularly during the more daunting, 'weepy' second half. Davis, Kelly and Mays are convincing as Vera's diverse family members. Marson's stoic-ness is at times funny and plays off Kelly's shy Ethel nicely. Craney is alluring despite her stuck-up demeanor.
The role of Susan is a questionable plot point. She serves nothing more than a social criticism on a woman's issue back then in 1950. Vera is not involved in her drama in any way, shape or form. After her unborn is terminated, Susan is not seen again. Her purpose served, she is ... terminated. The film's ending could have done without a cut to the 'shocked' family members after Vera's sentencing. They have at least several weeks of postponed arraignment to adjust to the fact.
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