Movie Review – Vera Drake

Vera Drake (2004)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s second foray into historical drama takes us back to the early 1950s. The UK is still healing from the wounds of World War II, and people get on with their lives. It’s also the first of his films that I don’t think quite hits the mark. There’s a very potent moral space to be explored with Vera Drake, but Leigh and his acting collaborators seem to avoid it. That would be the more interesting place to go than where we do, which is a fairly bog standard story. If you have even the slightest experience with cinema, then you’ll likely know where this film is going the minute you learn about Drake’s side gig and the volunteer work she does for her community. 

Vera (Imelda Staunton) is a devoted wife, mother, daughter, and community member. She spends her days scuttling about the town, checking in on people and ensuring everyone has what they need. In other words, Vera is a textbook example of mutual aid. She’s extremely close with her family, and her husband, Stanley (Phil Davis), couldn’t adore her more. There’s one task she hasn’t shared with her family, and that is Vera is an abortionist. She performs a procedure using an enema & bulb to deliver a carbolic acid solution to induce a miscarriage. Vera does this without asking for payment; she believes she is helping women trapped in impossible circumstances.

You can never argue with the authentic feel of a Leigh film’s cast. The extensive rehearsals and improvisation lead to scene after scene that feels very grounded & real. Staunton slips right into Leigh’s troupe of regulars without missing a step. This film is also the second collaboration between Sally Hawkins and Leigh, someone he saw much potential in early on. Hawkins plays Susan Wells, whose mother (Lesley Manville) employs Vera as a house cleaner. This is one area where I enjoyed that the film played with our expectations. She is raped by a date after her parents leave the house and ends up pregnant. Because she comes from an upper-class home, abortion is not out of reach for her; it just involves a doctor’s visit, referral to a psychiatrist, and correctly answering a series of questions to cover the legal grounds. 

Susan and Vera’s paths cross only lightly throughout the film, so this subplot stands out as a bit odd, mainly if you are used to a more conventional cinematic plot structure. It is included to illuminate the audience to some additional truths. The largest of these is that everything will always be available to the wealthy. They may outlaw things or make them cost-prohibitive to the poor & working class, but you can guarantee it will never be out of the reach of a rich person. What Susan goes through is traumatic, but in the end, she gets what she needs, and she is not made to carry a pregnancy that was the product of rape to term. Vera meets young women who were similar victims but because they don’t have the financial means, or in one case because they are a Black woman, the system has no interest in providing aid to them. Family planning is something for the well-off in this society.

The film wastes an excellent opportunity to explore in more detail why what Vera is doing is also harmful. She is not medically trained, and while the success rate of her procedure appears safe, it is not 100%. It’s because one young girl dies from an infection afterward that the police eventually track Vera down. She’s shocked to learn the broke, who provides her the addresses of the needy women, has been taking money for them the whole time. Vera just thought they were helping the women out. We can see that Vera feels horrific guilt that one of these people died, but the film doesn’t really do anything interesting with these ideas.

Because the pacing is slow, which I don’t mind in Leigh’s work, it makes it so that the crisis only happens in the last third or so, and I felt rushed through. Staunton delivers a stunning performance. Seeing Vera’s emotions go from warm & motherly to wholly broken when she learns about the death was incredibly moving. I just wish the film had done something more with the moral conflict at its heart. Vera is doing something hazardous very casually. She does it because there is a need that no one else seems willing to provide. I can’t say I know what I would have done given the script, but the film felt like it was missing something that would bring all the pieces together.

Vera Drake is a testament to Mike Leigh’s filmmaking mastery. Even though this movie has some weak spots, I think it is still an incredible film. By 2004, Leigh had honed his craft to begin pushing himself into new spaces. There would be two more historical dramas (to date) that he would direct – Mr. Turner, which I watched previously and loved & Peterloo, which I have not seen yet but should figure out a spot for soon. With all the historical films I’ve seen, Leigh has a procedural view of the world. He never seeks to impose melodrama, but instead, he develops his characters by showing us how they live and what they do. The human experience is dramatic enough on its own. You don’t need wild plot twists to make a compelling story.

In an era where reproductive rights are regressing, and those in places of power who claim to be allies in the fight do nothing, a film like Vera Drake reminds us of the cost of going back. We’ll be in an era where untrained people are performing extremely risky procedures, and so many birthing people will die as a result. The wealthy will always be able to terminate a pregnancy without a second thought because capitalism is a two-tiered system of “winners & losers.” The losers are forced to be the laboring breed stock, providing more bodies for the wealthy to chuck into the machine’s gears. Vera is heavily punished in the end, but the society around her doesn’t change in any meaningful way to prevent deaths like the one she accidentally caused. As long as human beings exist, unwanted & dangerous pregnancies will be terminated; we just have to ensure that it can be done as safely as possible.