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List Price: $27.98Amazon.com's Price: $24.99 You Save: $2.99 (11%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780650459
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 078065045X
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 29, 2005
Running Time: 125 minutes
Sales Rank: 22026
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The brilliant writer-director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked) has crafted an utterly compelling movie about one of the most controversial of topics. An irrepressibly hopeful housecleaner in 1950s London named Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, Antonia and Jane, Shakespeare in Love) mothers everyone around her, from her own family to helpless shut-ins and lonely men living in tiny, isolated apartments. None of these people know that Vera also helps young women get rid of unwanted pregnancies, until the police appear and tear her world apart. Vera Drake isn't just an inspired character portrait; through simple and straightforward scenes, the movie weaves a quiet but mesmerizing portrait of how people--both wealthy and poor--cope with adversity. Though wrenching, Vera Drake has too much life to be depressing. Leigh is deservedly famous for his work with actors; every character brims with truth and Staunton's performance deserves every award it could possibly win. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Good
Vera Drake was a highly praised 2004 film, written and directed by Mike Leigh, that detailed the cruelties and hypocrisies of England's anti-abortion laws back in post-World War Two 1950. It won the Best Film Award at the Venice Film Festival and from the British Independent Film Awards, and deservedly so. Yet, despite its `large' backdrop, the film is one of the most intimate character studies ever put to celluloid. Drake (Imelda Staunton) is an aging London housewife, with a husband, Stan (Phil ... Read More
Rating:  - Neither pro or con abortion, the film leaves the final judgement to the viewer
This is a carefully crafted film that captures well the struggles of the working class, the division of class in English society, social control of society, and the strength of the social and family networks that allow poor working folks to survive in the face of adversity. These complex themes are explored through a straight forward, non-complicated narrative that is enhanced with outstanding performances by the entire cast. Thefilm is neither pro-abortion or con-abortion. It offers a realistic view ... Read More
Rating: - Powerful
I came into this one expecting a lot because writer/director Mike Leigh is also the writer/director of SECRETS AND LIES. I was not disappointed.
It's a very different film. It has some very humorous parts, but mostly it's dark and dramatic. Very sharp writing, excellent characterization, an author who can look at all sides of an issue and keep the viewer interested throughout, and a fine "period piece" set in 1950 or thereabouts that captures a time quite well. A little slow, as one reviewer ... Read More
Rating:  - A Superb Staunton But the Desultory Tone Wears Thin
Nobody captures working class England and its socially reticent inhabitants better than director/screenwriter Mike Leigh does. He brings a deeply felt authenticity to post-WWII London in the set-up of his rather controversial story, and one needs to give credit to Leigh for not turning the film into a polemic about abortion. At the same time though, the 2004 movie clocks in at over two hours, and its unrelenting bleakness has a wearing effect especially since Leigh takes a decidedly episodic approach to his story. ... Read More
Rating:  - a new way to get info out of P.O.W.s
It's difficult for me to go into specifics with regard to what I found so horrible about this film because my mind apparently went into some type of state-of-shock-survival mode, I guess like what happens during any sort of severe abuse, and all that register in my memory was the fact that it was entirely unpleasant. If you are into really slow, overly dramatic, storylines that have been ran into the ground,or feminist-hero-over-body-rights issue (etc) movies about people uplifted for being humble and simple, well, ... Read More
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