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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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June 2005 |
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Review - Vera DrakeMike Leigh's fine film Vera Drake is quoted as being 'not so much pro-choice, as it is a re-telling, through one sympathetic character, of many very sad tales.' Alex Wegman found it not easy viewing. Vera Drake's passion for `helping girls in trouble' is a secret from her loving family, yet shares a strange affinity with the warmth and generosity of her home life in this tale set in 1950s post-war Britain. Good stories don't necessarily have a moral at the end, or a nice clear-cut point to make. In this story we see that young women were falling pregnant in shaky circumstances. Terminations were a lonely and terrifying affair, however they were carried out. I don't think we're supposed to be dwelling on whether abortion was OK because of selfless, cheery people like Vera Drake, who, in her naivety, was unaware that an old friend of greedy inclination was profiting from her practice. If this were a story of hopelessness, there would be no Vera Drake or her weird and wonderful family. A family shocked and revolted when her clandestine activities were revealed, they were nevertheless prepared to support her as a loved human being. Their struggles are our struggles.
Alex Wegman works in sound and media production in Melbourne. |
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