Vera Drake Critic Reviews

This is the kind of people-driven story that the movies used to give us - before special effects took over.Read the full review

The strength of Leigh's film is that it is not a message picture, but a deep and true portrait of these lives.Read the full review

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 the full review

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 the full review

Stunning and compassionate period drama.Read the full review

Sweet, strange and ultimately heartbreaking.Read the full review

The English director Mike Leigh's best work in a decade.Read the full review

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.Read the full review

The film is startlingly even-handed.Read the full review