The transformation Imelda Staunton undergoes in this period drama is astounding – all the more so because it doesn’t involve tricks such as makeup or weight loss.
From British realist Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies), Vera Drake follows a prim and
proper housecleaner in 1950s England who performs abortions for poor women on the side (she goes about it with the same dainty cheer with which she makes a cup of tea). When the police come calling, her world is shaken to its core, something Staunton underplays simply by draining her face of cheer altogether.
