Vera Drake

The Hollywood Reporter by

It's difficult to think of another recent film so seamlessly rendered or that envelops an audience so completely in its period authenticity.

Salon by Charles Taylor

When one of the young women Vera attends to nearly dies of complications, the police arrest her -- and the movie goes thud, taking Staunton's performance along with it.

The New Yorker by David Denby

Marvellous, though it is smaller in emotional range than such earlier Mike Leigh films as the goofy bourgeois satire "High Hopes" (1988), the candid and piercing "Secrets & Lies" (1996), and the splendid theatrical spectacle "Topsy-Turvy" (1999).

Variety by David Rooney

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."

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

The acting is brilliant and Leigh's screenplay - developed through his usual process of improvisation and rehearsal - is very long on compassion, very short on preaching and politics.

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

Vera Drake puts the passion in compassion. Building up to a shattering conclusion, Leigh's movie is both outrageously schematic and powerfully humanist.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Stunning and compassionate period drama.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

The English director Mike Leigh's best work in a decade.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Using Staunton's face as his canvas, Leigh crafts a powerfully moving film that is unmissable and unforgettable.

Film Threat by Phil Hall

The film's screenplay is thick with major lapses in logic, resulting in a story that ultimately makes little sense.