El secreto de Vera Drake

Mike Leigh has done it again. I adore "Secrets and Lies", my 2nd favorite film of all time and Leigh strikes gold again in the emotionally draining, brilliantly directed study of a 50's era abortionist in London. Imelda Staunton gives, yet another in Leigh's film, outstandingly powerful and true performance as Vera Drake. She a inner-city housewife and mother, who spends much of her free time trying to "help out" the poor ladies of 50's London who are unable to get legal abortions. Some may consider this a hot-topic issue film, but it's moreover an independent study of a woman and her life, and how her emotions play in her world. Every nuance of this film is perfectly crafted, from every performance, to the sets, and the cinematography. The emotions overflow steadily, especially after the traumatic dinner scene where the police arrive for Vera. The look of horror that Staunton displays and changes as she realizes what is happening is acting and direction at it's best. Why is it American films aren't able to capture this from it's performers? I can't praise this film enough and truly believe that this will be my favorite film of the year. It's a shame this film got only a small release and audiences seemed unmoved by it. I don't understand it. Hopefully DVD will allow those who missed it to catch up with it and relish in it's brilliance. It will be a rewarding experience for all to see. I am praying for Oscar noms all around, but especially for Staunton. It is clearly and without any doubt, the best female performance as of this date, this year.

Imelda Staunton is superb and is my bet for the Oscar unless some Hollywood Diva does another "out of character" performance. But she only shines because of the company she keeps.This is ensemble acting at it's finest. No melodramatics, no attempt to steal scenes,and the result is as honest as life itself. This is the way the British talked, almost always indirectly, hedging around issues rather than hitting them head on, and a slave to mannered behavior. Understate, understate, understate.

Having lived in England from 1952 to 1959, and having married someone who was British who grew up during the war and it's aftermath this movie was like "a bit of old home." My mother employed "char ladies" like Vera, although we were "upper middle class" rather than "upper." The class differences were quite distinct in those days, and often determined by accent. What this movie shows is not only the average life of a "lower class" family but the options forced on them that were different from those in the higher brackets of society.

As anyone should know by know the movie is about illegal abortion in a rigid

puritanical society. Illegal, that is, for those without means, but quite available to those who could grease the wheels of the medical establishment who had "legal" ways around the law. In other words if Roe v. Wade goes then Vera's will pop up again.

There is no attempt to make a statement for or against abortion. As Mike Leigh has said: abortion has been in every society for thousands of years. The Vera Drake's who have lived could populate a small city. What this movie does do is emphasize that the Vera's were/are common average people not quasi criminals lurking behind the curtains of some seedy back alley shack, and that legislating morality never addresses the often harsh reality of human society.

"Vera Drake" makes us realize how few of the classic kitchen sink, working class dramas of post-war Britain, whether in film or theater, were from the viewpoint of women ("Georgy Girl" and "A Taste of Honey" were among the few). Oh, girlfriends got knocked up in those works, but they were always seen as manipulative strangleholds to the freedom of the Angry Young Men; they should just take care of it.

With exquisite attention to complete period detail in body language, coloring, clothes, physical surroundings, etc. that fill the screen as much as he did theatrically in re-creating "The Mikado" in "Topsy Turvy," Mike Leigh takes us to the other side of that doorway that the older movies rarely showed us, (though in the '60's the original "Alfie" and the schmaltzier Hollywood "Love with the Proper Stranger" gave us an exaggerated view). The film also works in tandem with Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters" in showing how cruel life in Ireland and Britain could be for women with unwanted pregnancies, though evidently this film is not a docudrama.

This complete mise en scene (including contrasts with the upper crust families she works for as a domestic) very gradually gives us the matter of fact quotidian of Drake's mundane life of caring for her family and the neighborhood unfortunates, including girls she "helps out."

Imelda Staunton's self-effacement into the role and her character's into her environment doesn't prepare us for how she comes to completely overwhelm us.

Leigh created a similar working class world in "All of Nothing," but that film had no trajectory, virtually nothing happened to those characters, and none of the characters were as completely sympathetic as naive Drake is. It is wonderful to see a character actress get to fill the screen for long, emotional close-ups. The audience in the almost sold out theater I was in was completely gripped in silence and holding their breath as her life played out. Too bad the hot subject matter of abortion will probably keep her from getting an Academy Award.

Because of the vivid realism in the film, it is frustrating that there is no factual information provided, for example, as to when abortions became legally available to all women in Britain. A few facts are thrown out about enforcement and consequences, but those are anecdotal, though the class differences are portrayed vividly.

One is left with complete sadness that for all the specificity of time and place in the film, we could easily go back to a time like this when abortions are illegal and unsafe, because there will always be women who feel that is their only option, whether single, married, poor or rich. The past is prologue to the future.

It's not entertainment but...this is an extraordinary piece of work.

I went to see Alexander on a Wednesday night and Vera Drake the night after and what a contrast! A story that means something, characters that feel rough and real in your hands like worn stones in an old pathway, and above all film making with a purpose with no effort to dazzle just inform.

It's not perfect, but this is the kind of imperfection all of us in Hollywood should strive for.

A word about the art direction too. I remember the 50's in England and yes it was just like that - I remember my parents kitchen being that dismal and green, and yes English people and English families can be that incommunicative, and yes they sat in front of the fire and talked about the war and the Blitz and yes we would sit in the parlour on Christmas day and eat off a table just like that.

There. I've shared secrets with you. Now go and see this and keep crap like Alexander off the screens.

One observation: When the police arrive at the home of Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) to confront her about the allegation that she has been conducting illegal abortions, she and her family are celebrating her daughter's engagement. When the cops enter the room, the camera freezes on Vera's face. Over the course of about 45 seconds in which she doesn't say a word, Staunton's face registers every possible emotion: Joy, confusion, concern, fear, disgust, anger, guilt. It's heart-racing just to watch, and it's what acting -- great acting at least -- is all about. Staunton's is the one female performance of the year not to miss. (On the men's side, check out Morgan Freeman in MILLION DOLLAR BABY.)