Vera Drake (Film)

Synopsis:
A doting wife and mother becomes Public Enemy No. 1 in 1950s England when the police catch wind of what she does for a living. Mrs. Drake believes she’s just helping young girls by “setting them straight,” but others don’t take such a kind view of what Vera’s actually doing–that is, performing illegal abortions. When one of Vera’s patients almost dies, it sets in motion a tragic series of events. The scandal evokes a fiendish debate in all of English society, while the Drake family is torn apart by conflicting views on the right of poor, pregnant women to choose not to have their babies. A subplot follows the fate of Susan (Sally Hawkins), the daughter of one of Vera’s wealthy clients who deals with the byproduct of date rape with a carefully scripted avoidance of the word abortion that lands her in a cushy weekend retreat that provides her with one.
Critics’ Reviews: (#1)

Like Topsy-Turvy, this initially appears to be a break from the ‘Mike Leigh style’, being another period piece. Yet it’s one that recreates the living memory of 1950, homing in on characters who could be the grandparents of the people in the director’s other films. Vera (Imelda Staunton) offers a smile, kind words and endless soothing cups of tea as she provides support and motivation for friends and relations who might otherwise slide into feckless apathy.

Besides caring for her ancient mother and almost invisibly tidying wealthy homes, Vera matter-of-factly performs abortions most Friday afternoons at five (and, incidentally, demonstrates just how to perform a DIY termination). Disaster is inevitable and, when a client suffers complications, the police are called in. Vera’s arrested, then retreats into a shell of shame as she’s eased through the prosecution, trial and sentencing by not-unsympathetic authorities. It never overstresses subplots that put Vera’s crimes in context, like the timid, date-raped upper-class girl (Sally Hawkins) going through a far more hypocritical system to procure an abortion (involving a hefty fee and a discreet stay in a private clinic) or the son’s (Daniel Mays) sideline in nylons used to get girls into bed and probably supply Vera with more customers.

Though less comic than most Mike Leigh films, there’s an echo of that old wireless standby The Glums in the agonising courtship of Vera’s lumpy daughter Ethel (Alex Kelly) by terminally shy, scarf-wrapped Reg (Eddie Marsan), with pauses as pregnant as the parade of desperate cameo girls. Also in the Leigh tradition is Vera’s sister-in-law (Heather Craney), one of his terrifyingly aspirational women, ruthlessly intent on scrubbing the proletarian taint from her family (and accent) and squandering her husband’s earnings on new-fangled luxuries like a television set and a washing machine.

It catches exactly the drab, rationed, overly genteel-at-all-levels-of-society tone of the period (kudos to the location finder, set decorator and prop people). And the last act is almost unbearably affecting, with Staunton – like so many Leigh performers before her – going beyond the comic mannerisms to show naked pain. ~ Kim Newman, Empire

Critics’ Reviews: (#2)
Mike Leigh’s latest film is a melodrama set in the 1950s about Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton), a loving wife and mother who works as a cleanerfor the upper classes. She also secretly assists women in trouble by performing primitive abortions. After one unfortunate nearly dies as a result, the police are alerted and arrest Vera. Soon family and friends learn of her secret and must choose whether or not to stick by her.

It will come as little surprise to those familiar with Leigh’s work that the primary issue at stake in Vera Drake is not abortion but rather class. The view Leigh seems to advocate is that the difficulties of Vera and her girls are largely the result of the hardship they must endure in comparison to women such as Vera’s employer Mrs Wells (Lesley Manville) and her daughter Susan (Susan Hawkins). This point is emphasised when Susan also becomes pregnant; the relative comfort that surrounds her abortion highlights her privilege – and yet by having her raped and unable to tell anyone about it, Leigh keeps us sympathising with Susan, implying that she too is a class victim. This idea, that class distinction divides and destroys on both levels – i.e. the rich suffer emotionally while the poor suffer politically – is atypical of Leigh’s work, and recalls the differences of previous characters such as Cynthia and Monica in Secrets and Lies or Beverly and Sue in Abigail’s Party.

Though her philanthropy seems near pathological, Vera is a strong protagonist and the multiple characters and situations enhance her storyline. It is hard not to be moved by Vera’s helpless realisation that her family is destined to discover what she has been secretly practising all these years; though it is also frustrating that we never find out more about the nature of her convictions. Although he is often criticised for his caricatures, it is fascinating to watch Leigh’s seamless shifts between the various factions of society he has painstakingly fashioned.

This said, the comedy of the budding relationship between Vera’s daughter Ethel (Kelly) and Reg (Marsan), seemed inappropriately over the top. Perhaps Leigh wants us to catch ourselves sniggering at them and feel unsettled by our instinct to laugh – but then can hereally be of the opinion that only those so humble they barely have more life signs than a vegetable are truly equipped to experience happiness? However, such things are part and parcel of Leigh’s films, which rarely fail to elicit a personal response in the viewer. ~ William J. Davis, Film Exposed

Critics’ Reviews: (#3)
Set in 1950s London, the film revolves around the eponymous Vera, a working-class wife and loving mother to her two grown-up children. When not caring for her brood in their small tenement flat, she cleans the houses of wealthier families, looks after her ageing mother and selflessly tends to the needs of those less fortunate than herself. But Vera has a secret life she keeps hidden from her garage-mechanic husband Stan (Phil Davis), apprentice-tailor son Sid (Daniel Mays) and factory-employee daughter Ethel (Alex Kelly). At the instigation of her friend Lily (Ruth Sheen), a black marketeer, she helps young women who have “got themselves in trouble” by terminating unwanted pregnancies.

Leigh says Vera Drake is “a film about good and evil, society and love [and] a woman motivated entirely by helping people”.

But Vera’s altruistic intentions do not stop the authorities from arresting her once they have been made aware of her illegal activities. The movie tellingly juxtaposes its heroine’s plight with that of Susan (Sally Hawkins), the daughter of one of the upper-class ladies Vera skivvies for. Raped by a drunken boyfriend, Susan is able to obtain a legal termination by paying a psychiatrist to approve the procedure on medical grounds.

The double standard makes Vera’s prosecution and disgrace all the more harrowing as she is mercilessly dragged through the courts. The fact that she accepts no payment for her services cuts no ice with the prescriptive and punitive legal establishment. Dealing with complex moral questions and divisive social concerns, Vera Drake is a more overtly political film than we are used to seeing from its veteran director.

Thankfully, it is not without moments of humour and offers a meticulously recreated vision of urban life in the immediate post-war years. One of the movie’s most affecting scenes comes early on as the Drakes sit down after supper to swap stories of loss and tragedy during the Blitz. And fans of Leigh’s Oscar-nominated Secrets And Lies will appreciate the sequence where a fractious family reunion predictably ends in tears.

There is no shortage of the latter as Vera’s humble world caves in around her. Indeed, Imelda Staunton’s character starts crying around an hour into the story and does not stop until the end credits. Some may object to such blatant emotional manipulation, or revealing abortion scenes that leave almost nothing to the imagination. However, there is no denying the film is a superbly realised, brilliantly acted “kitchen sink” drama that confronts important issues with intelligence and compassion. ~ Neil Smith, BBC Online

Our Reviews:
When the movie opens, we see a petite woman probably in her 50s, going from home to home working as a domestic help, including a rich home and her own frailing mother’s. Vera Drake seems to be totally content and happy with what she does day in & day out. She has a tendency to hum merrily whether she’s making tea, emptying her mother’s toilet bowl, or simply wiping the brass rims of the fireplace in a well-to-do family home. At the end of the day, we see her wisk through her own home toward the kitchen and immediately immerses herself in preparing for dinner for her own family consisting of a loving husband, an extremely shy & inept daughter & a happy-go-lucky son who’s a tailor. Then we see her going to meet with, presumably, her friend who gives her a piece of paper where she takes it without asking much about it. The next thing we see is Vera knocking on a door when a young, distraught woman opens it to let her in. Vera walks briskly toward the woman’s bedroom and starts telling her to take her knickers off and lie down on the bed. By now we discover that Vera is about to perform an illegal abortion just when she takes out a few things from her bag that could only be equipment to perform the act. All this is done in such a swift, cheerful manner on Vera’s part that you can’t help but see this as one of her routines which she’s very comfortable with. We don’t see anything wrong with it simply because she does it in such good spirits and kindness that we are placed in a suspended belief that everything is ok. No worries.

Staunton brings to life the undefeated spirit of a bygone, simpler age, yet her performance truly shines at the one awful moment when the spirit is broken. The moment when Vera and her family celebrate the impending engagement of her daughter, Ethel, and Reg, and Joyce’s upcoming motherhood, and then the police arrive, Vera immediately knows why they’ve come. Staunton extinguishes the light in her eyes, her usually cheerful face slowly falls and the ever-good spirited Vera never shows that side of herself again. The most heart-breaking scene is when Vera is required to remove her wedding ring at the police station where she’s being charged. As the camera pans from her anguished face to a close-up of her hand when she slowly pulls off her wedding ring, fighting tears of despair, we can’t help but empathize with her situation completely. In our eyes, Staunton is Vera Drake. She plays the role exceptionally and convincingly well. Her performance anchors the whole production. It’d take someone with a heart of stone to feel anything but compassion for Staunton’s Vera Drake. What a truly Oscar-worthy performance indeed!

As is with Mike Leigh’s usual ensemble, even the smallest role is exquisitely cast. Among them, Sally Hawkinsplays Susan, the ultra-shy, conservative daughter of a well-to-do man (not featured in the movie) who we find out later works for the Ministry of Defense. Though she only appears in just about 3 scenes, she managed to grasp our attention away from the main plot, even for a brief moment, to focus on what is happening to her; a tragic story of date rape and her desperate attempt to find a solution from her wealthy, well-connected friend, who immediately refers her to a doctor and a psychiatrist who attended to her abortion as long as she could pay 150 pounds and tells the psychiatrist that she’s borderline suicidal as a result of getting raped. As long as the word “abortion” isn’t mentioned, and you have the money to pay for the procedure, everything is ok. Watching Hawkins‘ portrayal of sheer desperation which she only needs to use her face to tell us exactly what she’s thinking and feeling when the psychiatrist asks if she’d rather have the baby, is gut-wrenching.

Philip Davis is outstanding as Vera’s husband, Stan. The love he feels for Vera is palpable and, though unaware of his wife’s secret vocation until her arrest, you know he will standby his woman, no matter what happens. Adrian Staunton, as Frankie, is perfectly cast in appearance and tone as Stan’s loyal brother and business partner. Daniel Mays is dead on as the dandy son who is most shocked by Vera’s secret. Alex Kelly gives a wonderful arc to her performance as daughter Ethel, a dowdy young woman destined to spinsterhood – until the arrival of Eddie Marsen’s Reg. Marsen puts a soft-spoken and gentle spin on his character who, despite the sudden controversy in the Drake household, has become a part of a family. Peter Wight gives a 3D perf as the police inspector who arrests Vera. Even tiny roles, like Helen Coker as the female police constable accompanying Vera through the ordeal of arrest, are fully filled. ~ Coggy

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