VERA DRAKE

(PaPa, H, Ro, PCPC, AcapAcap, V, S, N, AA, D, MM) Strong pagan worldview with humanist and Romantic elements that gives a sympathetic portrayal of a woman in the 1950s who performs abortions, with strong politically correct politics of envy that supports abortion because, if abortions are outlawed, rich women will still be able to get them but poor women will not; at least two obscenities and one light profanity; violence includes implied abortions, man accosts woman and implied rape; couples on top of one another, implied sex between husband and wife, and implied rape; nude statue; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking; and, adult discussions involving abortion and morality, but movie ultimately takes a stand in favor of abortions because poor people need them. GENRE: Drama

In the story of VERA DRAKE, Vera is a veritable dynamo, visiting shut-ins in her working class neighborhood and inducing abortions in poor women who can’t afford it. Director and writer Mike Leigh’s pro-abortion politics of envy are abhorrent.

The story of VERA DRAKE painfully depicts the unavoidable reality that good intentions based on a flawed philosophy lead to poor choices of action, and the disastrous consequences that invariably follow.

Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) is a veritable dynamo, visiting her mother and other disabled shut-ins around her working class neighborhood in post world war II England. Vera truly enjoys assisting them with their basic needs on a daily basis while working a full time job as a domestic, and then preparing dinner at home for her husband and two grown children.

These activities by themselves would have been enough to run someone half her age into the ground, but for Vera, that is hardly enough. Not only can she do all that with a cheerful zeal, but unbeknownst to her family she has also been sneaking out to “help out” young girls by performing abortions using a set of very rudimentary non-surgical tools. Oblivious to Vera’s additional work, the Drakes live out their lives quietly and uneventfully, and when, in her usual heartfelt hospitality, Vera invites Reg (Eddie Marsan), one of the neighbors, to dinner, the result is an awkward but serious courtship between the single road construction worker who lost his mum during an air raid in the war and Ethel (Alex Kelly), Vera’s homely daughter.

Some time later as the Christmas holiday approaches and the family gathers to celebrate Ethel’s engagement the festivities are suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. It is the police. Vera’s latest abortion patient has just had a serious complication landing the poor girl in the hospital, and the ensuing investigation has led straight to Vera. In one single moment not just Vera’s life but the entire family’s life is irretrievably shattered.

This period piece set in 1950’s post war England is superbly staged and immaculately acted. Imelda Staunton gives a command performance which is definitely Oscar worthy. Buoyed by her performance, the rest of the cast, such as Vera’s husband Stan (Phil Davis), the two children, Daniel Mays and Alex Kelly, and Eddie Marsan as the laconic single neighbor, do not lag behind one bit. The working class neighborhood is starkly real, and the drabness, down to the soiled carpeting of the Drakes’ claustrophobic apartment, draws the audience in almost too close for comfort.

Director/Writer Mike Leigh is to be commended for his attempt to be even handed by balancing the view of Vera’s son Sid, who reminds her that “These were babies you were getting rid of” with Ethel’s fiancée Reg who counters with, “If you can’t feed them, you can’t love them” The scenes depicting Vera’s travail after her arrest are also powerfully staged. Vera’s inability to articulate answers to the constable’s questioning while sobbing uncontrollably is so powerful, if even a bit overdone, that it is difficult to sit through without feeling overcome with angst.

Regrettably, the director still could not resist from making a case for abortion by contrasting a wealthy young woman who quietly has the procedure performed in a clinic without as much as a hiccup with the poor women that Vera helps, who always run the risk of winding up at a hospital locked in a fight for their very own lives. His pro-abortion politics of envy are abhorrent.

For many years a well meaning, kind hearted, energetic, compassionate woman skillfully used some very rudimentary tools to successfully induce miscarriages in young women who wanted to terminate their pregnancy for one reason or another. Even though it was illegal according to the law and evil according to traditional Christian interpretations of the Bible, to Vera it was the right thing to do, and she believed in this so strongly that she never considered charging anything at all for her services. In the end, however, it comes down to what are presuppositions on which people like Vera are basing their beliefs. Regrettably, they are not deriving those beliefs from the absolute truth which can only come from a perfect God, who tells us that we are His creations, who knew us even before we were born and who values and loves life. In Scripture, we read “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” If only director Mike Leigh knew the real truth, his depiction of Vera’s story would have been quite different.

The story of VERA DRAKE painfully depicts the unavoidable reality that good intentions based on a flawed philosophy lead to poor choices of action, and disastrous consequences invariably follow. Vera Drake is a veritable dynamo, visiting her mother and other shut-ins around her working class neighborhood in post World War II England. Vera truly enjoys assisting them with their basic needs on a daily basis while working a full time job as a domestic, and then preparing dinner at home for her husband and two grown children. What her family doesn’t know is that, on the side, Vera induces abortions in poor, wayward women who can’t afford it.

Director and writer Mike Leigh tries to be even handed by giving his characters both pro-abortion and pro-life arguments, but he still cannot resist making a case for abortion by contrasting a wealthy young woman, who quietly has her abortion performed in a clinic without as much as a hiccup, with the poor women that Vera helps, who always run the risk of winding up at a hospital locked in a fight for their very own lives. Mr. Leigh’s pro-abortion politics of envy are abhorrent.