List Price: $27.98You Pay Only: $24.99 You Save: $2.99 (11%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780650459
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 078065045X
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 29, 2005
Running Time: 125 minutes
Sales Rank: 38089
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The brilliant writer-director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked) has crafted an utterly compelling movie about one of the most controversial of topics. An irrepressibly hopeful housecleaner in 1950s London named Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, Antonia and Jane, Shakespeare in Love) mothers everyone around her, from her own family to helpless shut-ins and lonely men living in tiny, isolated apartments. None of these people know that Vera also helps young women get rid of unwanted pregnancies, until the police appear and tear her world apart. Vera Drake isn't just an inspired character portrait; through simple and straightforward scenes, the movie weaves a quiet but mesmerizing portrait of how people--both wealthy and poor--cope with adversity. Though wrenching, Vera Drake has too much life to be depressing. Leigh is deservedly famous for his work with actors; every character brims with truth and Staunton's performance deserves every award it could possibly win. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Tea and Tears
I am a sucker for sad movies, especially ones in which really nice people are treated badly. As such this one should have sent me out for more Kleenex. But, gee, Vera cries enough for everyone and I left the film, dry-eyed, but scratching my head, saying "What? Is that it? After the looooong buildup and we don't even know what happens next?" I felt sort of cheated. The only tear I shed was at the horribly tense Christmas family gathering after everyone knew Vera's secret, when the new son-in-law to be said that this had been the best Christmas he had ever had. This was one of the nice human touches that the film has.
I found the first part of the film to be quite interesting. The lives
of the working class English family in the post WWII years was very lovingly shown. You could tell that the people had survived very hard times and the understated way they discussed the friends they had lost in the war was quite moving.
I think my main complaint is that, once Vera is confronted with her crime, she breaks down into utter misery and this one tone last through the rest of the film---at least an hour. Unrelieved crying takes its toll on the viewer which is why I just couldn't sustain my sympathy for the character. Dramatically, it's a bad choice. Then...the ending...After we have lived through all the tears and the worse-than-expected verdict...what? All we see is the family, back home in the dark house, mutely surviving. This is not a conclusion that ... Read More
Rating:  - Good
Vera Drake was a highly praised 2004 film, written and directed by Mike Leigh, that detailed the cruelties and hypocrisies of England's anti-abortion laws back in post-World War Two 1950. It won the Best Film Award at the Venice Film Festival and from the British Independent Film Awards, and deservedly so. Yet, despite its `large' backdrop, the film is one of the most intimate character studies ever put to celluloid. Drake (Imelda Staunton) is an aging London housewife, with a husband, Stan (Phil Davis), and two grown children, Ethel and Sid (Alex Kelly and Daniel Mays), who goes out of her way to help girls who are pregnant have homemade abortions. She charges no money for her services, and is sent on the sly, by acquaintances who do charge money to be recommended to her, although Drake does not know this. She is a prim lady who calls and holds everyone and everything `dear'.... This film holds some truck with Alfred Hitchcock's films that focused on wrongly accused men, most notably his The Wrong Man, with Henry Fonda, but this film ends on a lighter touch. Life goes on, and, in a few years, Vera Drake will be free, yet there will have been far less scrupulous characters who will have taken her place. Laws against abortion ALWAYS target the poor, not the rich, and then society condemns the poor for having `too many kids', even as it denies them the means to not have those despised `bastards'.
Rating:  - Neither pro or con abortion, the film leaves the final judgement to the viewer
This is a carefully crafted film that captures well the struggles of the working class, the division of class in English society, social control of society, and the strength of the social and family networks that allow poor working folks to survive in the face of adversity. These complex themes are explored through a straight forward, non-complicated narrative that is enhanced with outstanding performances by the entire cast. Thefilm is neither pro-abortion or con-abortion. It offers a realistic view of the process and the players and leaves judgement to the viewer.
The compelling story and main character, Vera, keep you engaged. Vera is a cheerful, giving, warm, compassionate, loving person who is the keystone of her family and social network. Phil Davis plays her husband Stan and his performance is also of the highest level. This hardworking and honest housekeeper performs abortions for poor girls for free, seeing her actions as helpful.
The film is certainly more about social class and privilege as much as it is about illegal abortions. We see both poor and rich girls becoming pregnant and we see wealthy girls using the established medical community to assist them with an unwanted pregnancy whereas we see poor girls faced with fewer options. Likewise we see society physicians willing to perform an abortion if a rich girl happens to have suicide in the family and mentions that she is so stressed that she is thinking about suicide. The physicians are protected but the poor ... Read More
Rating: - Powerful
I came into this one expecting a lot because writer/director Mike Leigh is also the writer/director of SECRETS AND LIES. I was not disappointed.
It's a very different film. It has some very humorous parts, but mostly it's dark and dramatic. Very sharp writing, excellent characterization, an author who can look at all sides of an issue and keep the viewer interested throughout, and a fine "period piece" set in 1950 or thereabouts that captures a time quite well. A little slow, as one reviewer mentioned, but I don't think that's a bad thing in this case. I chalk it up to mood.
So, as you can guess by the five stars, which I rarely give out, I'm quite impressed. In fact, I'm about to go hunting for some more Mike Leigh films. This guy's really impressing me.
Rating: - A Superb Staunton But the Desultory Tone Wears Thin
Nobody captures working class England and its socially reticent inhabitants better than director/screenwriter Mike Leigh does. He brings a deeply felt authenticity to post-WWII London in the set-up of his rather controversial story, and one needs to give credit to Leigh for not turning the film into a polemic about abortion. At the same time though, the 2004 movie clocks in at over two hours, and its unrelenting bleakness has a wearing effect especially since Leigh takes a decidedly episodic approach to his story. The title character is a simple, frumpy woman, so kind-hearted that she thinks nothing of tending to those she sees as less fortunate, whether it is her mother, her invalid neighbor or the parade of mainly young girls who find themselves with unwanted pregnancies. Vera sees no distinction when it comes to helping these people selflessly, and to her immediate family, especially her loving husband, she is nothing less than a saint beyond reproach.
Leigh takes his time in establishing this fact, too much time really, and pacing is part of the movie's problem. It appears that he is intent on showing how matter-of-fact her illegal abortion practice is compared to her everyday activities with her family. To some degree, the juxtaposition of scenes maximizes the later drama of consequences and ramifications, but the results are uneven because there is nothing remotely surprising about what happens to her. The second half of the movie develops a compelling emotionalism thanks to a stunning ... Read More
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