Vera Drake review

Mike Leigh has dominated the British cinematic landscape for the last thirty years. He has made many good films (Naked, Life Is Sweet), some great (Topsy Turvy, Secrets and Lies), and the occasional dud (All or Nothing). While he is lauded around the world, criticisms have been levelled that many of the characters in his films are too stereotypical, that the actors, under Leigh's notoriously detailed direction, push the believability of their characters too far. His new film offers the chance for no such criticism: instead it may well be the film that Leigh is forever remembered for. A stunning piece of work, Vera Drake is an indisputable masterpiece: hugely powerful, brilliantly directed, with a superb cast led by a jaw-dropping central performance by Imelda Staunton.

Set in the working class London of 1950, the film depicts the lives of the Drake family. They are poor, but happy. Vera works as a cleaner in rich people's houses while her husband Stan (Phil Davis) works in his brother's garage as a mechanic. They have two adult children, Sid (Daniel Mays) who works as a tailor, and Ethel (Alex Kelly), a factory worker. Their lives are simple but content, sharing a miniscule apartment and still reflecting on the legacy of the war whose scars are still to be fully healed. When Ethel meets local boy Reg (Eddie Marsan), and announces that they plan to marry, the lives of the Drakes seem destined for happier times.

Vera is an honest, hard-working woman, who spends much of her spare time tending for ill neighbours, cooking for her family, or looking after her dying mother. But she has a secret. In a time when the law was much less liberal than it is today, she helps young women with their 'problems'. In short she is a back street abortionist. Receiving her appointments from a middlewoman, Vera attempts to perform this basic operation in as quick and painless a manner as possible (although the scenes of her actual work are difficult to watch). Most startling of all is the fact that she accepts no money. Instead she receives a few rationed goods here and there. Vera sees what she does as simply helping out girls in trouble. Inevitably, and horribly, something goes wrong with one of the operations, and soon the police are banging on the Drakes' door demanding Vera (one of the film's many tense scenes). The game is up, and the Drakes' lives are about to be destroyed.

The cast do a brilliant job of making their characters sympathetic and convincing. Phil Davis is wonderful as the loving husband, Alex Kelly plays the dowdy daughter perfectly, Eddie Marsan marks himself out as a face to watch in the role of her beau, and Daniel Mays excels as the son who can't come to terms with his mother's secret. But, inevitably, this film belongs to Staunton, who deserves every award going for her performance. It's hard to think of a more heartbreaking role played to such perfection in recent memory, and adjectives can barely describe how good she is. A wonderful turn in an unforgettable film.

Paul Hurley