Vera Drake
Fine Line Features | Release Date: October 10, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
VarietyDavid Rooney
Mike Leigh is at the peak of his powers with Vera Drake, a compassionate, morally complex drama that stands easily alongside his best work, "Secrets & Lies" and "Topsy-Turvy." Read full review
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Vera Drake puts the passion in compassion. Building up to a shattering conclusion, Leigh's movie is both outrageously schematic and powerfully humanist. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Stunning and compassionate period drama. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The acting is brilliant and Leigh's screenplay - developed through his usual process of improvisation and rehearsal - is very long on compassion, very short on preaching and politics. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
A marvel of character-driven drama that no serious filmgoer should miss. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Among its many excellences, Vera Drake functions superbly as a pure thriller; the last half is reminiscent in structure and detail of Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man." Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Few movies have evoked the happiness of a good, strong family as genuinely as this one. And this affecting atmosphere makes the eventual outcome resonate with great power. Read full review
100
USA TodayMike Clark
This is the kind of people-driven story that the movies used to give us - before special effects took over. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
In absorbing drama and staggering emotions, it renders an issue too often seen as black or white in heartbreaking gray. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The strength of Leigh's film is that it is not a message picture, but a deep and true portrait of these lives. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
There's nothing harder for an actor to play than a thoroughly good character, and Staunton does it with a dowdy, sublime originality. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The English director Mike Leigh's best work in a decade. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
Vera Drake is so patient, assiduous and attentive to emotional accuracy that it betrays the utter sloth of most of what we see when we go to the movies. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
As an evocation of English working-class life half a century ago, it feels utterly authentic, and is ennobled -- not too strong a word, I think -- by Imelda Staunton's performance in the title role.
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Much of the film's potency derives from its personal edge -- the passion for precise period decor, the title dedicating the film to Leigh's parents (a doctor and midwife), and even the childlike classification of many characters as either good souls or villains. Read full review
90
Washington PostSean Daly
Sweet, strange and ultimately heartbreaking. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Using Staunton's face as his canvas, Leigh crafts a powerfully moving film that is unmissable and unforgettable. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Confirms Leigh's reputation as one of the world's master filmmakers - and showcases Staunton as one of its great actresses. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For those who have the patience to become absorbed in this kind of drama, Vera Drake offers a stunningly real character portrait whose image will linger long after the movie has faded. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The film is startlingly even-handed. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
It does a masterful job of capturing a specific time and place while reminding us how timeless the abortion dialogue is. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
No filmmaker, in any cinematic culture, has a better eye or ear for the working class than director Mike Leigh. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
It's difficult to think of another recent film so seamlessly rendered or that envelops an audience so completely in its period authenticity. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Marvellous, though it is smaller in emotional range than such earlier Mike Leigh films as the goofy bourgeois satire "High Hopes" (1988), the candid and piercing "Secrets & Lies" (1996), and the splendid theatrical spectacle "Topsy-Turvy" (1999). Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
One of the letdowns of Vera Drake is that once Vera is arrested, we lose her voice. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The issue may be polarizing, but Vera Drake resonates with such seriousness and truth that it transcends the narrow limitations of polemic. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
This very patient film reaches out and unshakably grips us. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
Painful for many reasons, but highly recommended. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
In an era in which too many of us automatically accept women's right to choose, Vera Drake reminds us that the time for complacency is not now. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Expansive, but succinct. Leigh tells a small story and doesn't try to make something huge of it. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
In the end, this is a movie that doesn't respect its own power. Less of a stacked deck would have left Vera Drake to play a far more effective hand. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Makes a compelling argument for women's rights without ever succumbing to preachiness. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Imelda Staunton is absolutely astonishing. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Staunton is phenomenal - she barely speaks throughout the entire last third of the film, but the power of her posture and distraught expressions are enough to break your heart. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
As lovely and heartbreaking as Staunton is to watch, there's something about Leigh's attachment to his politics that leaches some complexity from the experience Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Leigh's directing is lean and tight. In Imelda Staunton as Vera, he has an actress who can make her only two emotions interesting. Read full review
60
SalonCharles Taylor
When one of the young women Vera attends to nearly dies of complications, the police arrest her -- and the movie goes thud, taking Staunton's performance along with it. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Marathon of misery. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
As a character study Vera Drake is coarsely drawn, and as pro-choice polemic, it’s both a blunt instrument and a red herring. Which may be why, among all the moviegoers who staggered from the theater wielding soaked tissues, I was among the few who remained dry of eye, and raised of brow. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPhil Hall
The film's screenplay is thick with major lapses in logic, resulting in a story that ultimately makes little sense. Read full review
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