Vera Drake

Finally, a movie on abortion that treats it with respect and dignity and humanity. "Vera Drake," is a movie most people need to see not because it is an amazing film, but because it has that sort of gentleness and tenderness toward family and forgiveness; toward choosing life and choosing love. Although many people may shy away from "Vera Drake" because they think it's left-wing political propaganda, that isn't what the movie is trying to do at all (in my mind at least---it's not a "pro-choice" movie, although many will look at it in that light). In a sense, it's trying to discuss abortion as if the whole debate never existed. It takes us to a place where people still struggle with the issue---and when I say "still struggle" I mean, they still think about it harder than most Americans and most Christians generally do---and this world seems simple and quaint, yet unmistakably unsettling. Imelda Staunton plays Vera Drake, a 1950s woman living in England who lives to love and loves to live. She's a housekeeper, a maid, a loving mother, a loyal wife---but she's also an abortionist, a word that even the movie suggests is a bit "over-the-top" to describe someone. In her mind, she's simply helping women who can't think of any other way out.

Since this is a film by Mike Leigh, the purist filmmaker who strives for honest filmmaking and real-life representation in most all of his films, the movie has a very intimate feel and yet, a very sad one as well. It's one that's worth the rental not because of its subject matter but because of its graceful way of handling forgiveness, which is really what the movie is mostly about.

See it.