Vera Drake - It's about class

Just saw a really excellent movie, Vera Drake. It's directed by Mike Leigh, and is about the most real picture of life in 1950s England that I've seen. The film revolves around a middle-aged woman named Vera who works as a servant in several well-off families' homes, cleaning, etc. As well, she helps out women who ‘can't manage’, i.e., they're pregnant and can't keep the baby. The whole movie is filled with very British euphemisms, about the only one to actually use the word ‘abortion’ was the police detective, and that was only because at some point he absolutely had to, because it was one of the unpleasantnesses of his job to be direct. Thankfully this doesn't afflict the rest of British society, where people can talk a mile-long detour around an unpleasant topic if need be.

The saddest part of the film was the realization that there was not going to be any courtroom drama, after she is arrested. No dramatic surprises, no impassioned arguments before a judge who might change his mind, no real mention of the fact that while this woman is on trial for performing abortions, there is a completely ubiquitous nudge-nudge culture in the medical profession that lets members of the upper class have doctors perform the same operation safely and cloaked in discreet acceptance. “No “Law & Order”-style surprise miracle confessions.. just a hopeless, but hence accurate picture of what it was like for people who had so little contact with the civil system that tried to ignore them when it could that they barely knew their rights under the law.

The film had an excellent manner of showing the ugliness and awkwardness of life for most people. Conversations were often stilted and trailed off, people never really knew the right thing to say, and sex was portrayed as it usually happens, awkwardly and really kind of messy.

This is how films should look: like life. If they are to be meaningful and tell us something about ourselves. Wiping the fog off the mirror so it shows our wrinkles and our flaws back to us instead of a false fuzzy smooth image of most movies.
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