Vera Drake (2004)
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 156
Fresh: 143 | Rotten: 13
With a piercingly powerful performance by Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the controversial subject of abortion.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 4
With a piercingly powerful performance by Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the controversial subject of abortion.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 11,033
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Movie Info
Written and directed by Academy Award-nominee Mike Leigh and set in England during the 1950s, this movie revolves around Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton), whose unrelenting dedication to her family is well known throughout her blue-collar town. However, there are more people than her rapidly aging mother and ill neighbor who depend on Vera's care. Though abortion was illegal and, of course, widely frowned upon in the '50s, Vera sees women going through unwanted pregnancies the same as she would
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Cast
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Imelda Staunton
Vera Drake -
Philip Davis
Stan -
Peter Wight
Detective Inspector Web... -
Adrian Scarborough
Frank -
Heather Craney
Joyce -
Daniel Mays
Sid -
Alex Kelly
Ethel -
Sally Hawkins
Susan -
Eddie Marsan
Reg -
Ruth Sheen
Lily -
Helen Coker
WPC Best -
Martin Savage
Detective Sergeant Vick... -
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Jim Broadbent
Judge -
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Lesley Manville
Mrs. Wells -
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-
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Simon Chandler
Mr Wells -
Eileen Davies
Prison Officer -
Tom Ellis
Police Constable -
Richard Graham
George -
Nicky Henson
Private Doctor -
Paul Jesson
Magistrate -
Nicholas Jones
Defence Barrister -
Anna Keaveney
Nellie -
Anthony O'Donnell
Mr Walsh -
Judith Scott
Sister Beech -
Tilly Vosburgh
Mother of Seven -
Jeffry Wickham
Prosecution Barrister -
Heather Cameron
Child -
Jane Wood
Prisoner -
Marion Bailey
Mrs Fowler -
Robert Putt
Station Sergeant -
Jake Wood
Ruffian -
Wendy Nottingham
Ivy -
Leo Bill
Ronny -
Angela Curran
Prisoner -
Sam Troughton
David -
Alan Williams
Sick Husband -
Tracy O'Flaherty
Nurse -
Chris O'Dowd
Sid's Customer -
Gerard Monaco
Kenny -
Billie Cook
Child -
Billy Seymour
Child -
Nina Fry
Dance Hall Girl -
Lauren Holden
Dance Hall Girl -
Joanna Griffiths
Peggy -
Angie Wallis
Nurse Willoughby -
Vinette Robinson
Jamaican Girl -
Rosie Cavaliero
Married Woman -
Lucy Pleasence
Sister Coombes -
Craig Conway
Station Constable -
Vincent Franklin
Mr Lewis -
Michael Gunn
Gaoler -
Paul Raffield
Magistrate's Clerk -
Philip Childs
Clerk -
Stephan Dunbar
Usher -
Sid Mitchell
Very Young Man
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All Critics (164) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (146) | Rotten (14) | DVD (19)
With Vera Drake, [Leigh] has made his most controversial and accessible work
All the actors so completely fade away that you come out of the film thinking you've seen the real people, not players reciting a script.
[The movie] can break your heart.
Mike Leigh, who seemingly has single-handedly revived kitchen-sink realism in modern British movies, hits something of a career high with the marvelous Vera Drake.
Vera Drake makes a compelling argument for women's rights without ever succumbing to preachiness.
Staunton is brilliant as Vera.
Authentic and complex grid of a system of social values and fears that has most everyone stuck in its tragic labyrinth.
In a hopelessly polarized debate, Leigh allows us to see real people involved in real situations. The film will keep people on either side of the abortion debates talking.
Word "great" doesn't do justice to what Imelda Staunton delivers with her performance.
Staunton lends the role of Vera a great emotional complexity, eschewing any facile moral response to the social and sexual issues at the heart of the film.
Imelda Staunton delivers an indelible performance as a woman with a frighteningly simplistic idea of the world and how to live in it.
Moralmente complexo, está longe de representar uma experiência 'satisfatória' para o espectador, que sairá emocionalmente esgotado do cinema. Isto o engrandece ainda mais.
La película confirma a Mike Leigh como uno de los mejores representantes del cine británico, y a Imelda Staunton como una de sus mejores actrices.
Puts a tender human face on this explosive subject.
Vera Drake succeeds because Leigh is not interested in sloganeering but in looking at the human and moral cost.
Vera Drake is powerful, yes, but its third act offers up little more than indistinct (though admittedly effective) teariness.
Audience Reviews for Vera Drake
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Mrs. Wells: You are looking very flat chested. Have you lost weight?
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Foreign Titles
- El secreto de Vera Drake (ES)










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