Stardate 61035.53 - Vera Drake

Cheryl and I watched Vera Drake Friday night in an attempt to get one movie in during the weekend before we both have to deal with work items left over from the week and my class and its homework and hair cuts and play dates and everything else this weekend that will suck the leisure time away like Mega Maid over Planet Druidia (lets see who gets that reference).

It was a good movie, but very serious. Cheryl said the entire time she felt like "Yes, I am watching an art house film that is very serious about a very serious topic." It was well acted, or I really should say very well improvised because Mike Leigh is famous for having his actors become the characters and then respond to events and each other without a real script. The Wikipedia entry for Vera Drake has even more details regarding what the actors went through, including (except for the star) not knowing the subject matter of the movie until it is revealed to their characters while the camera rolled.

Overall I liked the movie, although it was slow in parts and I kept thinking, "Why wasn't this cut for pacing?" Although due to the improvisational nature of the movie I assume it is more difficult to re-shot and edit and cut scenes (I'm not a movie maker so what do I know?). Also, like Cheryl I found myself saying things like, "Ah, here is where the contrast between classes will be illustrated," and "Here is where we see the importance of family sticking together."

Cheryl slept through the last 30 minutes and will have to go back to finish it, but I guess I give it a thumbs-up. I would not recommend this to my friends, unless they were the art house serious subject movie types (you know who you are...and who you aren't!).

NYC