Vera Drake is one of those films tailor made for getting together with your drinking buddies to just get crazy - shouting out your favorite lines, high fiving each other, you know the drill. Actually no. Vera Drake is about as rousing as your average Merchant Ivory film, but for fans of quiet character studies (like myself) you'll most likely enjoy this somber and terrifically acted period piece.

Set in post WWII England, Vera Drake centers around the title character, a big-hearted, cheer-spreading middle-aged mother or two who is beloved by her family and friends. For years, however, she has secretly moonlighted as a sort of midwife who specializes in helping troubled young women who wish to terminate their unwanted pregnancies. Her method is a relatively non-invasive and safe method that induces miscarriages. She asks no remuneration and her discretion has made it so that no one other than her patients and a women who serves as her contact, who arranges and schedules her little visits.

Imelda Staunton earned an Oscar nomination for this powerful performance, and her presence on screen is luminous - she is truly the sun that the rest of this mostly bleak picture revolves around. All of the cast members acquit themselves well - in that British working class reserved manner - the men still suffering the after-effects of horrors of war. Her husband played by Richard Graham is stoically affectionate, modest but strong and happy with his lot in life, Both of her children are grown but still live in their parents small flat. Her daughter (Anna Keaveney) is a taciturn and somewhat backward thing, whom Vera successfully lines up with a strangely quiet neighbor man (Eddie Marson). Their odd and awkward little courtship is touching and quite surprisingly develops into an quick engagement, much to the delight of everyone.

Writer Director Mike Leigh (Topsy Turvy) has a wonderful ear for dialogue and his feel for the interrelationships of these various characters is far and away the strength of Vera Drake. In the midst of this somber and down-trodden lifestyle, Leigh brings an abundance of life and substance to these characters. You will come to care very much about these humble people. Even those who ultimately bring Vera's practices to the attention of the law and the cops themselves are drawn with a humanity and fairness that is remarkable. Credit Leigh for fleshing these characters out with plenty of color even amid such a drab backdrop. By the same token, Cider House Rules, Vera Drake is not. The means Leigh uses to set up Vera's rationale is somewhat heavy-handed. There are a few scenes designed to help one understand the need for Vera's services that were quite unnecessary and poorly executed. Fortunately Staunton's performance manages to overcome the scripts shortcomings here by the steadfast and matter-of-fact way she goes about her ministrations.

Regardless what side you might find yourself on when it comes to this most tricky of all issues, you'll have no doubt that Vera Drake suffers few sleepless nights wrestling with her conscience when it comes to this service she selflessly offers. There are a few subtle inferences as to possible circumstances in her past that may have set her on this unusual crusade, but mostly it is Staunton herself that renders any ethical squabbling a moot point. Staunton simply wins your heart outright and when circumstances conspire to bring her secret service to the light of the law and her family, your heart will remain on her side.