Director:
Mike Leigh
Starring:
Imelda Staunton
Philip Davis
Peter Wight
Adrian Scarborough
Heather Craney
Daniel Mays
Alex Kelly
Sally Hawkins
Release: TBA
IMDb
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Vera Drake
BY: DAVID PERRY
With the Washington Post pronouncing gay marriage “the new
abortion,” the commentary in Mike Leigh’s latest effort may seem moot. His
story of an abortion specialist in 1950s England never feels timely
regardless of the setting. With abortion now legal in that country as well
as in the states, the film’s reminder of what archaic laws we once had feels
awfully like cinematic muckraking, riling up the activists to action even if
they’ve succeeded in their interests to this point.
Furthermore, the film isn’t particularly engaging in the first place. Apart
from some fine performances, including a well maintained reversal from
Imelda Staunton as the title character, most of what occurs in Vera Drake feels
contrived. Though based on a true story, its succession of exposition and
emotional uplift come as affronts to the normally obtuse Leigh. The director
of such films as Naked and Secrets & Lies doesn’t seem terribly interested
in the emotional depths of his characters, which is counter to the niche
he’s established for himself in British cinema. With three of his finest
performers jumping ship for the film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban offers more complex characterizations.
I’ve never seen a Mike Leigh film in which he seems to lose interest in
plots before they reach their apex. But here story strands are suddenly
dropped and never touched again. At the beginning, he seems determined to
make a statement about the differences between a rich woman’s abortion and a
poor woman’s abortion, but once he’s setup the scenario, he moves back to
the story of Vera and her wonderful bedside manner. The possibility for a
meaningful exploration of abortion history is terminated prematurely -- it’s
the new partial birth abortion.
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