Review of Vera Drake (2004) by Kgaard . — 27 Feb 2005

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]I'm not a big fan of the Oscars. Fashion bores me, the speeches bore me (why would I care about someone I don't know thanking someone else I don't know? Nice for them, but it does nothing for me), and the relatively arbitrary exercise of picking "bests" in artistic forms is a nonserious exercise. Still, I can enjoy the process on a frivolous level (like end of year Best of/Worst of lists and so forth), so I usually flip back and forth during the showto see who's winning. The four best films I saw in 2004 (a limited number, admittedly, were [i]Eternal Sunshine, Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles[/i] and one of the following movies (not nominated for best picture), so I have no rooting interest to rise to even to my usual level of torpor.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Well. At least it gives these reviews a theme.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3][font=Arial][i]Sideways[/i] (Alexander Payne, 2004)[/font] [/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The monster tire marks left on Hollywood the past three years by Peter Jackson's epic [i]Lord of the Rings[/i] may in part explain the burst of critical praise for films like this one and the puncher (and punchy) Million Dollar Baby. Even in the swell of critical praise for the fantasy trilogy, one got the sense that, by [i]The Return of the King[/i], the bombast and grandeur was wearing us down. Incisive and intimate films about adult relationships always seem to be in short supply, anyway, so there is a natural tendency to welcome their presence.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]In the film, oeniphile and failed novelist Miles (Paul Giammati) is taking longtime friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a C-grade actor whose halcyon days are long past, on a weeklong getaway to California wine country to relax, taste some wine and play some golf. [/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The first hour of the film is its biggest problem. Frankly, it's hard to figure out why these guys are hanging out in the first place. Nothing in their relationship suggests simpatico natures; they are kindred spirits in a certain kind of baseness, but as the film contrasts their levels of self-awareness and idomatic coping mechanisms, it only highlights the vast gulf between them. This central mystery is never comfortably resolved, although there is an unconvincing effort to do so.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Sideways is punctuated by genuinely comic moments--Miles bounding down a hill with Jack in pursuit, for instance--and the performances, particularly of Giammati and Virginia Madsen as his (somewhat unlikely) love interest lend bounce to a unevenly satirical script. But the incremental movement of Miles' character over the arc of the film doesn't seem to justify its existence, especially since most of that movement takes place in the last five minutes. The smallness of a subject does not necessarily imply an inverse largeness of purpose.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3][font=Arial][i]Million Dollar Baby[/i] (Clint Eastwood, 2004)[/font] [/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The controversy of the [i]Million Dollar Baby[/i]'s conclusion is a red herring. In some respects, it was the most honest element of the film. Art works can serve political purposes, but a story must always serve itself first. What happens to Hilary Swank's Maggie was natural within the film's framework.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Unfortunately, the film is built on a foundation of cliche. Maggie's gritty eagerness, Frankie's (Clint Eastwood) tough exterior veneer over a soft heart, Eddie's (Morgan Freeman) Wise Black Man (a character so obviously narrow they felt obligated to throw him a useless subplot, an ineffective counterpoint) all fit together in predictable clockwork fashion. Swank is good, and Morgan Freeman's gravelly voice is a pleasure, even if his narration is massively overused, but Eastwood's slow, purposeful delivery malfunctions: it works at times, but at others he appears to be acting at cue cards.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The boxing itself, while occasionally an improvement on other films of the genre, leans too heavily on frenetic, roundhouse action--Maggie's rise would have felt more convincing had we at least seen the occasional clinch. The Evil Cheating German Boxer is pasted in from Cold War Rocky days, to no obvious purpose.[/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]In the end [i]Million Dollar Baby[/i] substitutes its initial parade of cliches for another set of them, not dishonestly or manipulatively, but pointlessly. Frankie and Maggie's torment is undermined by the flat backdrop against which it's been set. They play it out to the end, mechanically, and I could imagine caring, but felt only the echo of the emotion.[/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][font=Arial][i]Vera Drake[/i] (Mike Leigh, 2004)[/font] [/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]This, obviously, is the film that belongs in the nominee pantheon. It is imperfect, but Imelda Staunton's pathologically helpful title character is one of the most rich characters in film in recent years.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Vera Drake is a back-alley abortionist in 1950s London, "helping," as she puts it, poor young women in trouble (read: pregnant). Her relentlessly altruism extends beyond abortion, however: she cares for the old and infirm, even as she benevolently schemes to fix up her spinster daughter with a husband. In other words, Vera is not a crusader. She performs abortions not out of rebellion or dogmatism, but only because the women she helps have no else who can help them. [/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]This is demonstrated when a stricken patient ultimately leads the police to Vera. Mike Leigh's deft handling of the relationship between Vera and authority elevates the film past ideological concerns. The police are not domineering men, they are men (and at least one woman) performing their duties in the calm British way. Vera's response to her exposure is not calculated defiance, but natural fear. Her husband is a picture of bafflement and devotion to the woman he loves.[/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]If I were to have a rooting interest for the Oscars, it would be for Staunton's brilliant performance. She gives Vera a rare depth: she moves Vera from kindly matron to desperate accused with a subdued yet searing performance. [/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Some of the subplots in the film fail to fully come together--Vera's son and her sister-in-law are weak links in characterization--but it matters little, as the slow unveiling, and unraveling, of Vera Drake is the most rewarding part.[/size][/font].