Vera Drake: A must-see

If you haven’t heard about the amazing movie Vera Drake yet, it’s about time you did. Coming from filmmaker Mike Leigh (who also did Secrets and Lies), Vera Drake is a seriously heart-wrenching movie about abortion in 1950s England. And I mean seriously—bring the tissue box.
I was lucky enough to catch a screening of the movie in New York a couple of weeks ago, where I met Mike Leigh and Imelda Staunton, who plays the title character.
Staunton plays Vera Drake as a kind, selfless, lower-middle-class mother who works as a domestic and in her spare time (for no money), “helps young girls.”
What I found most striking about this movie was its lack of in-your-face politics. It simply told the story of one woman, and through that story made the issue of choice profoundly clear.
Another incredible fact is that much of the movie was improvised:
On a Leigh set, no one knows what his or her character wouldn’t know until absolutely necessary. Staunton called one seven-hour improvisation terrifying. She didn’t know the police were coming for the character she had become until they arrived at the family’s tiny, crowded apartment, where an engagement party for her daughter was underway.
Staunton, speaking about the movie’s political implications said, “I would hope it makes people go out and think about the moral dilemma we all face…There’s no religion in the film. There’s no politics in the film, per se. It just manages to look at this complex and personal and extremely difficult topic with compassion. . . . [But] the film is saying if it goes back to being illegal, this is what you’ll be left with.”
For reviews of Vera Drake, click here, here, and here.