"Vera Drake"

The first half of Mike Leigh's latest, about a cleaning woman/abortionist, showcases how he can get amazing performances from his actors. But the second half . . .

By Charles Taylor

Oct 7, 2004 | For the first half of Mike Leigh's new film, "Vera Drake"-- which plays in the New York Film Festival this Friday and Saturday and opens theatrically on Sunday -- Imelda Staunton, as the working-class '50s woman who gives the movie its name, keeps a smile on her face. Vera is a bundle of energy and good cheer as she keeps house for her loving husband, Stan (Phil Davis), son, Sid (Daniel Mays), and daughter, Ethel (Alex Kelly), and for several upper-class employers; drops in on her invalid mother; visits a sick neighbor to make sure he and his family are eating all right; invites home a bachelor neighbor to share in her family's supper; and performs abortions on young women who find themselves pregnant.

I'm not coyly tossing that in at the end of a list of Vera's good works. In the movie's scheme, Vera's services as an abortionist, her willingness to help women in a situation they can't see their way clear of, are part of what make her a good, caring person. Vera isn't a polemicist for reproductive rights, and she's not a vulture preying on vulnerable women. She doesn't charge for her services, and she doesn't employ a butcher's methods. Vera induces a miscarriage by douching the young women she attends to with soapy water. And like everything else she does, she goes about it reassuringly, competently, soothingly.

Leigh isn't interested in debating the morality of abortion. What would be the point? Everyone knows where they stand. You either believe it should be safe, legal and available or you don't. Leigh is making a movie about an era when abortion was illegal, but whether it was safe and available depended on which class you belonged to. We see a rich young girl (Sally Hawkins) who's been raped able to talk to a doctor and check herself into a private clinic. And we see the dreary rooms where the women Vera attends to live.

"Vera Drake" gives off a powerful feel for early '50s London, when the glory of surviving the Blitz and beating the Nazis didn't result in a glorious life. Britons were still on rationing. (Vera has to make black market purchases for basics like sugar.) Leigh manages to give us this atmosphere of reduced circumstances and reduced expectations without overdosing on the dreariness or hardship.

The first hour or so of "Vera Drake" is a good demonstration of why J. Hoberman, in his Village Voice review of Leigh's last film "All or Nothing" (one of Leigh's best and least heralded), called Leigh the most Dickensian of filmmakers. Leigh, who famously works with actors for weeks doing improvisation before filming, is often mistaken for a naturalist, perhaps because he deals with social issues. But Leigh's method is that of the caricaturist, and when he's cooking, no one is better at making caricature come alive on-screen, of using caricature for rich dramatic effect.

Leigh can stage a scene like the Drakes cozily sitting around their table at the end of their various work days, enjoying dinner and each other's company, and do it without a trace of the homiletic creeping in. And Leigh can toss in characters who are no more than eccentric doodles (like Chris O'Dowd as the jolly Irish fellow who goes to young Sid, a tailor's apprentice, to get fitted for a suit), and make you delight in them the way you delight in Dickens' eccentrics.

Leigh is considered a whiz with actors and the reason why is evident in scene after scene. For the first half of "Vera Drake," there's good acting everywhere you look -- from the immensely likable Phil Davis as Vera's devoted husband; from Ruth Sheen as Lily, the craven intermediary between Vera and the young women she attends to; from baby-faced, quiff-haired Daniel Mays as Sid; from Alex Kelly, so withdrawn she nearly draws her neck inside her sweater as Ethel; from Fenella Woolgar as the worst friend any girl in trouble could turn to; and from the marvelous Eddie Marsan as the shy bachelor Reg. These actors bring their characters to life in a scene or sometimes just a shot. The performances in "Vera Drake" are what happens when actors find themselves lucky enough to work with a director who loves actors and works to serve them.

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