Vera Drake (UK/France/New Zealand) (New Line) (2004) ****Year: 2004iMDB
Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly
Mike Leigh delivers a lesson in character drama which can be compared and contrasted with the recent Clint Eastwood movies Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby. Vera Drake however it is based even almost entirely on character and almost not at all on the action. In fact from the early beginning the plot development is easily foreseen. Vera (Staunton) is a loving housewife in a lower class family of 1950's London, working for as housekeeper for richer families. Aside from her family life and day job, unbeknownst even to her family, she is "helping" young pregnant girls "fix" their problem.
While the development of the story is predictable, what makes Vera Drake worth watching is the strong yet understated acting, Imelda Staunton's performance being likely to become classroom material for acting studios from here on. Also noteworthy is the fact that director/screenwriter Mike Leigh does not provide his actors full scripts ahead of time, but rather directs them scene by scene allowing them to even improvise. Furthermore, in Vera Drake, all actors besides Staunton were not aware, just like their characters, of the direction that the story was going to take, since they only discover Vera's occupation as they play the scenes in which their characters find out the truth.
Vera Drake is about simple characters and simple feelings but manages in its simplicity and subtlety to rival the intensity of epic dramas.
Posted by TheCasualCritic on February 1, 2005 03:18 AM | TrackBack