Vera Drake
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Movie Reviews of Vera Drake
Movie Review: A very human portrait of a woman who tries to be helpful
Summary: 5 Stars
In this award winning 2004 film, Imelda Staunton is cast as Vera Drake, a British working class woman in 1950. It's post-war in Britain and there's still rationing. And the modest flat where Vera lives with her family is very spare. However, this woman brings love there, you can tell that. She's always doing some sort of service for somebody. She visits invalids and tries to cheer them up, she smiles and gives a cheery greeting to all, and she polishes the brass in the home of the wealthy family she works for with pleasant energy. She has two grown children and she plays matchmaker for her shy daughter. Her husband adores her and they have a happy household. She leads a good life, mostly by being useful. And it's always appreciated.
However, one of the things she does to be useful is to help out girls in trouble. A couple of times a week, she packs her syringe and soap and administers a douche to women who want to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. This is illegal. But, to Vera, she is just being her helpful self, especially since she never takes money for her services although unbeknownst to her, the woman who arranges these visits to all these women in trouble, is charging a fee and not letting Vera know. It was inevitable; of course, that one of the girls she helps has a bad medical reaction and almost dies as a result.
Vera's arrest right in the middle of a family celebration of her daughter's engagement is full of emotion. Even the police feel sorry for her. We now see the effect of this on her family. And we can't help but feel sorry for Vera.
This is a powerful film. It tries to stay away from judging the acts Vera commits. Instead it focuses on her as a person. I understand the director had the actors do improvisations for weeks before filming. I'm sure that's why every little detail rings true. All of the performances were excellent. The casting was perfect. And the humanity of the situation was absolutely real. I felt privileged to view this very intimate portrait of a family. I was right there with all of them, especially Vera. Of course the ending was sad. It couldn't be any other way.
This is an excellent film and I highly recommend it. Just be prepared to have your emotions stirred.
Movie Review: Stunning performances.
Summary: 5 Stars
Imelda staunton is utterly brilliant in the role of Vera, a cheery, easy going Mother figure from a working class family of 1950's England. The film introduces us to, and guides us seemlessly through the silent social order of Middle and Working class lives and indicates just how much silent power Women had.
Many British post war themes are presnt, the narrow expectations of women of all classes, the first waves of West Indian immigration and the disenfranchised feeling among the people involved, heavy black marketering and the ongoing effects of poverty and rationing (the latter two lasting well into the late 50's).
Vera is the Happy Matriarch of her Family and provides an unoffical social care role to and aged Mother of her own and several lonely elderly folk on her estate (the kind of care which is now professionalised and managed to the point of stupidity), she scrubs and cleans for wealthy Ladies who trust her implicitly. She harbours what could be viewed as a dark secret, as along with a rather mercinry friend, she carries out pregnancy terminations for girls in trouble, in these pre-effective contracepetion days when sexual pleasure was taboo but one of few people had.
Vera's involvemnet in this operation undoubtedly comes from a place of love and concern for these girls and this is aptly portrayed giving a contempary resonance to the role and definite need for legalised abortion sometimes.
Her story is cleverly juxtoposed with that her rich bosses daughter who falls pregnant following what can only be described as date rape.
This girl has the resources to have a hushed, Harley Street termination in times when abortion was still illegal in Britain.
While the film is a brilliant historical documentry it rings with contempary resonance inasmuchas there can be seen to be no clear and precise argument either for nor agaisnt the practice of termination. The support cast are wonderful, particularly Vera's sound family, her sinister friend who helps the process and extorts payment from girls, a fact Vera is unaware of and the sympathetic police investigators. Staunton is the central and most compelling actor however, I defy audiences not be moved by and sympathetic with her cause and viewpoint. Emotional, hopeful and utterly brilliant.
Movie Review: A True Thinker
Summary: 5 Stars
"Vera Drake" is a great powerdrama released in 2004, starring Imelda Staunton. This explores the heavily controversial subject abortion heavily. Set in 1950 England, Vera Drake is a devoted wife and mother who cares for families as work. Many consider her a warm, caring woman. Therefore, everybody around her loves her. She lives a secret life. She terminates unwanted pregnancies without profit, which was illegal at the time (it wouldn't become legal until 1967). Everything runs smoothly until a complication with one of her patients happens. From there, she reveals deep secrets she's kept from everybody for twenty years. Through everything, her relationships become tested.
Crafted beautifully by writer and director Mike Leigh, the emotional aspect remains present throughout the film. From the patients' struggles to Vera Drake's battles, this film teaches audiences about abortion issues. This film is neither about pro-choice or pro-life; this offers a variety of facts from both sides. That's what makes this film more amazing. Audiences can interpret this their own way. The deep events and words within the film prove that this film is more than a woman who helps young women. This explores her beginning and her beliefs in the system. The multi-layering forces audiences to think deeply about the film. Most must watch it multiple times to fully understand everything.
Though all the performances are wonderful, Imelda Staunton's unbelievable performance as Vera Drake is breathtaking, earning her many acting awards including an Oscar nomination (Best Actress). She places heavy emotion through her character's personality and battles. Through her cries and her charitable times, she maintains her personality posture throughout. The details that are not revealed by words are wonderfully revealed by her expressions, namely her influence to begin her quest. Though Best Actress Oscar winner Hilary Swank's role in "Million Dollar Baby" is more powerful, Staunton's quality closely matches hers.
"Vera Drake" is a powerful film that is sure to please many audiences regardless of political views. This is sure to be a great educator with abortion issues though the storyline is fiction.
Movie Review: Please Actually See The Movie Before Reviewing It
Summary: 5 Stars
*MILD SPOLIER ALERT*
It seems to me to be a fairly reasonable request that one should actually see a movie before one begins to slam its Amazon page with one star reviews condemning it. Such reviews exist here. These reviews do not review the movie "Vera Drake," they merely use this forum to press their own agenda.
For the record the movie "Vera Drake" is not a movie about abortion. Abortion is certainly a key issue raised by the film but first and for most the movie is about a particular woman in a specific time and place and the choices she makes regarding women who are scared and lonely. Choices, it implies, she makes due to her own abandoment. You do not have to agree with the actions the character of Vera Drake takes (and for the record I don't) to appreciate the dilemmas these women find themselves in -- dilemmas forced upon them by the hypocrisy of a society, which still exist today, by the abandonment of the men who played a major role in their predicament and of the condemnation of those who critize them while doing nothing to help them make the morally right choice. For that reason it is quite interesting that the movie "Vera Drake" has been praised by both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" groups. *ANYONE* who has seen the movie understands that the movie in no way, shape, or form, glorifies or glamorizes abortion and this is true for both the women in the movie who obtain them illegally via Vera, and for the woman who, because of her social status is, due to further societal hypocrisy is able to obtain one legally.
As for the much ballyhooed performance by Imelda Staunton in the title role, BELIEVE THE HYPE! Although the movie is a tad slow going at first Staunton's performance is nothing short of magical as she transforms herself in a London cleaning lady in 1950. The police interrogation scenes, in which the camera stays focused on Staunton's face are among the most gut wrenching ever put on film as, slowly but surely, it begins to sink in to Vera what the consequences of her actions are, not just for her, but for the women involved and their unwanted, unborn children.
See the movie first. Then review.
Movie Review: Fantastic Movie, Outstanding Performances
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me confess, I switched off the movie half-way through because I found it difficult to see the film ...it was too gray and sombre a subject for me. However, the next day I decided to see the film in one sitting and I am happy that I decided to see the film. This is one of the best films of the year, and it was worth every minute of it.If the actors, director, and the crew of a movie have you convinced on the story line, and you get into a heated debate after the movie...you know that you have just seen a really great film. Films, like stories, are a reflection of what goes in our society, and Vera Drake does a brilliant job of capturing the subtle naunces and undercurrents in the post World War II British society with warts and all. Suspend your political ideology and values for a while when you see this film.
This is a period film of sorts which has no shades of brilliant colors, just varying hues of gray and black in keeping with the painful and sober theme of the movie. Vera Drake (Imelda Stauton) is a caring wife and mother, who fusses about her family and neigbors. During the day she works as a maid in upper class homes, and every Friday she helps out the poor girls of their unwanted pregnancies at no charge. In the 1950s England abortion was illegal, and often poor women resorted to unreliable methods for abortion. Unfortunately one of Vera's abortion procedure goes wrong, and it is downhill from there.
This is a story of Vera, a simple lady who does not subscribe to any political ideology or values, but is just driven by a notion to help poor girls. Not for a single minute does it occur to Vera that what she might be doing could land her in trouble and ruin hers and her family's life. There are few human beings that are cut from the same cloth as Vera, who are humane and empathize with people regardless of your race and class. This movie makes you realize what unconditional help is all about, and how difficult it is give that on a consistent basis.
Imelda Stauton dominates every frame of the film and has rendered a fine, nuanced and powerful interpretation of the character. Stauton should have been awarded the Oscar for this film.