Vera Drake

In 1950s London, Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) is a tirelessly cheerful cleaning woman who brightens the homes of the wealthy and the lives of her own working-class family. Her husband Stan (Phil Davis) is a gentle mechanic; their grown children, Sid (Daniel Mays) and Ethel (Alex Kelly), live at home. Vera is the family's bustling, tea-making heart. But she carries a secret: for years, she has performed illegal abortions for desperate women, asking only enough to cover her expenses. To Vera, this is simple compassion. To the law, it is a crime.

Mike Leigh directs with his signature blend of naturalism and moral nuance, building the story through meticulous character work and period detail. Dick Pope's camera stays close, catching every flicker of Staunton's extraordinary performance. The film refuses to sensationalize its subject, instead presenting Vera's double life as a matter-of-fact reality, until a client falls dangerously ill, and the police begin to close in. [edit]

Vera Drake lives in a modest London flat with her husband Stan, a mechanic, and their two adult children: Sid, a cheerful tailor, and Ethel, a shy factory worker who is engaged to Reg (Eddie Marsan), a quiet young man. Vera's days are a whirlwind of domestic labor. She cleans houses for wealthy families, including the household of Mr. and Mrs. Wells (Simon Chandler and Lesley Manville), and tends to her bedridden mother. At night, she makes tea, darns socks, and plans Ethel's wedding. The family is close, loving, and ordinary.

What no one knows is that Vera also performs abortions. Her friend Lily (Ruth Sheen) acts as a go-between, bringing women to Vera's kitchen. Vera uses a syringe and soapy water, the crude, dangerous method of backstreet abortionists. She does not profit; she charges only for supplies and sees her work as helping women who have no other options. The film intercuts these secret procedures with Vera's sunny domestic life, never judging but quietly showing the strain.

A parallel story follows Susan Wells (Sally Hawkins), the daughter of one of Vera's employers. Susan is pregnant and unmarried. Her family arranges for a safe, legal abortion through a private doctor, a stark contrast to the illegal, risky procedures Vera provides. The film draws this class divide without comment, letting the images speak.

The crisis arrives when one of Vera's clients suffers a severe hemorrhage and is hospitalized. The police investigate, tracing the abortion back to Vera. One evening, detectives appear at the Drake family's door. Vera is arrested in front of her husband and children, who are stunned to learn of her secret life. The film then follows Vera through interrogation, bail, and the slow disintegration of her family's world. Stan stands by her, but Sid is furious and confused; Ethel's wedding is thrown into doubt. Vera's quiet dignity in the face of exposure becomes the film's emotional core.[edit]