Responses
The film was a critical success. The website Metacritic, which compiles and averages reviews from leading film critics, gave it a score of 83 out of 100. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as holding an overall 92% approval rating based on 155 reviews, with a rating average of 7.9 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that, "with a piercingly powerful performance by Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the controversial subject of abortion."
As of 9 April 2006, Vera Drake had grossed $12,941,817 at the box office worldwide, including over $3.7 million in the U.S.
The film has attracted some criticism from those who worked in midwifery during the 1950s. The chief concern is the method of abortion used by Vera Drake in the film. This involves using a Higginson bulb syringe filled with a solution of warm, soapy water and disinfectant, which is inserted into the woman's uterus. This method is claimed by Jennifer Worth, a nurse and midwife in the 1950s and 1960s, to be invariably fatal. She calls the film itself "dangerous", as it could be shown in countries where abortion is illegal and the method depicted copied by desperate women. However, a letter in response to her article claims a real-life experience of just such an abortion in Notting Hill in 1965.
Read more about this topic: Vera Drake
Famous quotes containing the word responses:
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—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
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—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
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