Posted: 01/28/2005

Vera Drake

(2004)

by Hank Yuloff

Ms. Staunton’s performance is easily the most Oscar-worthy of the year.

She could be your aunt. Or your mother. Or that sweet lady next door who always has a kind thing to say and is always willing to help out a neighbor. Or a midwife helping bring a baby into the world. Or a woman who helps other women who, finding themselves pregnant with no positive option, provides comfort in helping them go through with the most difficult decision any of them have ever had to make.

This is Vera Drake. Who for over 20 years, was one of many women who routinely performed abortions for the poor women in post-WWII London. Until one went wrong. Until she was tracked down. Until she was brought “to justice.” This is a powerful story, that shows both sides of the abortion issue and many of the gray areas in between.

We see how one young woman belonging to a wealthy family is helped, for a 100-Pound fee to get the abortion she desires, without her family knowing, without the man who raped her being detained.

We see Drake’s own family, split on the issue of right and wrong, deal with the issue of love of mother and wife versus the moral feelings on abortion.

We see how Drake herself feels about helping women, and never takes any money for performing the abortions, though the woman who arranges them collects about 2-Pounds (a large difference compared to that paid by families of means—and without all those nasty legal complications). It seems that even the police seem reticent to move forward on this case when they uncover this information.

Finally, we see, within a microcosm of one family, how the issue effected them and continues to effect society in general.

Imelda Staunton (Crush) plays Drake and is completely deserving of the Oscar nomination she received for the role. To watch her, is to feel what she feels; the friendliness towards friends, the anguish for doing what she feels is right, though she knows that it isn’t considered legal. Though the rest of the cast is not nominated, they should be noted here for an amazing ensemble performance. Philip Davis (plays Vera’s husband), Alex Kelly (plays her daughter), and Daniel Mays (plays her son) are her family but are only the tip of an acting performance that is wonderful to watch.

This is a must see movie no matter where you fall on the debate that rages below and above the surface in every political contest held in our country.

Hank Yuloff is our senior staff reviewer in Los Angeles.

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