Vera Drake (2004)
Country: GB/FR
Technical: DeLuxe 125m
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight
Synopsis:
London, 1950: Vera looks after everyone lucky enough to cross her path in need, is a model wife and mother and provides miscarriages for mothers of unwanted children free of charge. Her neatly ordered existence is shattered one Christmas when a girl suffers complications from her relatively safe methods and the police close in.
Review:
A superbly acted film which is at once a case study, a document of a very precise time and a sad story of a woman who is exploited, then prosecuted and imprisoned, when all she wanted was to 'help girls out'. It also very sensitively deals with the issue of abortion: Vera's actions are never condoned and even shown to be naive, but we are also shown the less caring, more mercenary side of the abortion 'appropriately' arranged through professional channels. It is in the minutiae of character behaviour that Leigh again shows his observational touch, but also his heavy hand, encouraging an acting style that verges on the caricature, particularly in the depiction of the upwardly mobile, therefore selfish, sister-in-law. The police, however, are portrayed even-handedly and the lead performance is a total investment in the role.
Country: GB/FR
Technical: DeLuxe 125m
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight
Synopsis:
London, 1950: Vera looks after everyone lucky enough to cross her path in need, is a model wife and mother and provides miscarriages for mothers of unwanted children free of charge. Her neatly ordered existence is shattered one Christmas when a girl suffers complications from her relatively safe methods and the police close in.
Review:
A superbly acted film which is at once a case study, a document of a very precise time and a sad story of a woman who is exploited, then prosecuted and imprisoned, when all she wanted was to 'help girls out'. It also very sensitively deals with the issue of abortion: Vera's actions are never condoned and even shown to be naive, but we are also shown the less caring, more mercenary side of the abortion 'appropriately' arranged through professional channels. It is in the minutiae of character behaviour that Leigh again shows his observational touch, but also his heavy hand, encouraging an acting style that verges on the caricature, particularly in the depiction of the upwardly mobile, therefore selfish, sister-in-law. The police, however, are portrayed even-handedly and the lead performance is a total investment in the role.
Country: GB/FR
Technical: DeLuxe 125m
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight
Synopsis:
London, 1950: Vera looks after everyone lucky enough to cross her path in need, is a model wife and mother and provides miscarriages for mothers of unwanted children free of charge. Her neatly ordered existence is shattered one Christmas when a girl suffers complications from her relatively safe methods and the police close in.
Review:
A superbly acted film which is at once a case study, a document of a very precise time and a sad story of a woman who is exploited, then prosecuted and imprisoned, when all she wanted was to 'help girls out'. It also very sensitively deals with the issue of abortion: Vera's actions are never condoned and even shown to be naive, but we are also shown the less caring, more mercenary side of the abortion 'appropriately' arranged through professional channels. It is in the minutiae of character behaviour that Leigh again shows his observational touch, but also his heavy hand, encouraging an acting style that verges on the caricature, particularly in the depiction of the upwardly mobile, therefore selfish, sister-in-law. The police, however, are portrayed even-handedly and the lead performance is a total investment in the role.