Vera Drake

We went to see Vera Drake on Saturday. I was under the false impression that it finished last week and so we got up early to see it. As it happens it's still on this week. There's little interest in Japan it seems, very few people were at the small, art-house place in Harborland where it's playing. But I can guarantee that everyone who saw it loved it.
It is one of the best movies I've seen for a very long time. The direction and, without exception, everyone of the acting performances were superb. Coupled with the atmosphere of working class London in the early 1950s, the film is superb. Best of all, perhaps, is the lack of any Hollywood pretension. It's unlikely that a US director would make a movie about abortion without condemning it out of hand, but of course Vera Drake makes us sympathetic to not only the poor girls who choose this unpleasant and even dangerous operation, but also with the kind hearted abortionist who sets out to help the girls for no payment and no other reason other than she knows no one else will.
There is one case of a rich girl who undergoes the 'official' method (whereby, after assessment by a psychologist, she is given a legitimate abortion) in order to create a striking contrast between those with money and those without. The other contrasts are also striking: men vs. women, young vs. old, and so on. The photography, the direction, the atmosphere, the acting, and the story are all brilliant.
In Japan, where abortion is absolutely no issue whatsoever given the cash, and where so many girls undergo this harrowing procedure, the content of the movie may seem just too basic. But it tells a compelling and true to life story. Unless you're extremely anti-abortion (and so probably male and American) this is a movie you should see.