Thank heavens for Mike Leigh, because you sure wouldn't see an American film with a serial abortionist as the heroine.
The movie is set in 1950, and Vera Drake has been "helping out" young pregnant women for so long she's not even sure when she started. And she really does see herself as helping out; she won't use the A word. Her clients are not all young, mind you. There is the poor woman, for example, with six or seven children already and a sick husband, who can't bear the thought of another. Nor are they all helpless or innocent - one has had at least one before - or even poor, although most certainly are. The cost is two guineas, but Vera takes no pay - the money going to her "abortion pimp", who also deals in rationed consumer goods for a profit.
Vera truly has a heart of gold. I really can't think of a movie character - leaving aside that Jesus fellow - more selfless or altruistic. What is remarkable is that, in part because of Leigh's naturalistic script and in part because of Imelda Staunton's extraordinary performance - you never for a moment doubt the truth of that claim. When Vera is arrested after one of her syringe and soapy water abortions finally goes wrong, almost killing a young woman, she is not thinking of herself but of the effect on her family.
And this is when this already beautiful film gets even more heartbreakingly sublime. Her husband, his brother, her daughter, even the daughter's hapless fiancé stand by her without question. Only her son is appalled, thinking that she has done something not only wrong but "dirty"; but his father shows him that he must forgive his mother, as she would forgive him. And so he does. Only the brother-in-law's wife, a woman with airs, condemns Vera. Tellingly, she is also a materialist.
For this movie is mostly about the virtue of the working class, another reason why it is impossible to conceive of it in an American version. Is what Vera did wrong? I don't think so, but even if you do, there is no denying that only the poor paid the price of unwanted pregnancy when abortion was a crime. The rich, as we see in the case of desperate young woman who is date raped, get a referral over tea at a tony restaurant, see a Harley Street doctor, get a dispensation from a winking psychiatrist, and have the deed done in a posh sanatorium.
In addition to Staunton, the whole cast is wonderful. Special kudos go to Philip Davis as Stan, the husband. This is the best picture of 2004.
The movie is set in 1950, and Vera Drake has been "helping out" young pregnant women for so long she's not even sure when she started. And she really does see herself as helping out; she won't use the A word. Her clients are not all young, mind you. There is the poor woman, for example, with six or seven children already and a sick husband, who can't bear the thought of another. Nor are they all helpless or innocent - one has had at least one before - or even poor, although most certainly are. The cost is two guineas, but Vera takes no pay - the money going to her "abortion pimp", who also deals in rationed consumer goods for a profit.
Vera truly has a heart of gold. I really can't think of a movie character - leaving aside that Jesus fellow - more selfless or altruistic. What is remarkable is that, in part because of Leigh's naturalistic script and in part because of Imelda Staunton's extraordinary performance - you never for a moment doubt the truth of that claim. When Vera is arrested after one of her syringe and soapy water abortions finally goes wrong, almost killing a young woman, she is not thinking of herself but of the effect on her family.
And this is when this already beautiful film gets even more heartbreakingly sublime. Her husband, his brother, her daughter, even the daughter's hapless fiancé stand by her without question. Only her son is appalled, thinking that she has done something not only wrong but "dirty"; but his father shows him that he must forgive his mother, as she would forgive him. And so he does. Only the brother-in-law's wife, a woman with airs, condemns Vera. Tellingly, she is also a materialist.
For this movie is mostly about the virtue of the working class, another reason why it is impossible to conceive of it in an American version. Is what Vera did wrong? I don't think so, but even if you do, there is no denying that only the poor paid the price of unwanted pregnancy when abortion was a crime. The rich, as we see in the case of desperate young woman who is date raped, get a referral over tea at a tony restaurant, see a Harley Street doctor, get a dispensation from a winking psychiatrist, and have the deed done in a posh sanatorium.
In addition to Staunton, the whole cast is wonderful. Special kudos go to Philip Davis as Stan, the husband. This is the best picture of 2004.