Vera Drake

London, 1950. Vera Drake works as a cleaner, looks in on sick neighbours and keeps her family going. She also has work nobody knows about: she performs abortions for women in trouble and takes no money. The police arrive at her daughter's engagement dinner. Mike Leigh directed, using his usual long improvisation and going one step further here: only Imelda Staunton knew what the film was about. The rest of the cast did not know Vera would be arrested until the actors playing the police knocked on the door. The shock on screen is real. It won the Golden Lion at Venice and Staunton took the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. It won three BAFTAs, for director, actress and costume design, and was nominated for Oscars in Best Director, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 93 percent and Metacritic at 83. On an 11 million dollar budget it grossed around 13.3 million worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who like British social realism and can watch one character come apart. Who it is not for: anyone who wants to stay away from the subject. The film neither celebrates nor condemns abortion, but every scene is directly about it.