- 10
...a stunning and compassionate period drama...
—Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly
- 10
What lifts Vera above almost every other film so far this year is that sense of teeming life and warming empathy. The picture, which has already won the Best Film and Actress awards at the Venice Film Festival, is a prime example of how genuine drama terrifies and uplifts us.
—Michael Wilmington Chicago Tribune
- 9
...a film of pitch-perfect, seemingly effortless performances...
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 9
...a brilliant, heartbreaking film.
—Leah Rozen People
- 9
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.
—David Sterritt Christian Science Monitor
- 8
...Mike Leigh's best work in a decade.
—Manohla Dargis New York Times
- 8
...a powerfully moving film that is unmissable and unforgettable.
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 8
...beautifully realized...
—Lou Lumenick New York Post
- 8
Ultimately, the film is more of a portrait than a story, and as such it is finely wrought and compelling, but the airbrush is overkill.
—Carina Chocano Los Angeles Times
- 7
Beautifully shot and impeccably acted with human interaction that remains easy to relate to though taking place in a different era, Vera Drake will keep your mind reeling well after leaving the theater.
—Rachel Gordon filmcritic.com
- 7
Heartrending even by the standards of director Mike Leigh's most sentimental films, his somewhat reductive treatment of a complex subject is saved by yet another typically brilliant cast.
—Ken Fox TV Guide
- 7
Building up to a shattering conclusion, Leigh's movie is both outrageously schematic and powerfully humanist.
—J. Hoberman Village Voice
- 7
...it doesn't go through the usual docudrama paces of other issue movies, which vigorously stoke the conflict on both sides of the public debate.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 7
Imelda Staunton is absolutely astonishing in the title role of this quiet, sad film about the dangers and consequences of what we could call the pre-choice era.
—Glenn Kenny Premiere
- 5
Leigh's continuing rage against the machine is inspiring at a time when so many young directors are making clever, empty thrillers or disappearing into their own narcissistic heads. But as a character study Vera Drake is coarsely drawn, and as pro-choice polemic, it's both a blunt instrument and a red herring. Which may be why, among all the moviegoers who staggered from the theater wielding soaked tissues, I was among the few who remained dry of eye, and raised of brow.
—Ella Taylor LA Weekly