Fri., Oct. 29, 2004 12:00 AM PDT
Oh, baby, Imelda Staunton is in quite a mess. As the titular sweet and innocent star, Staunton's a 1950s British housewife who cleans the homes of London's wealthiest families. But when she's not polishing silver, she's secretly offering abortions for those in need. The illegal practice gets exposed--and the police gets on her back--when a patient gets gravely ill.
To his credit, director-writer Mike Leigh (
Secrets & Lies) doesn't inject any moral high ground on a subject that could easily feel one-sided. But he doesn't give Staunton a full range of material to work with either. For two-thirds of the film she simply smiles a lot. Then all she does is bawl and barely utter a word. To her credit, this character always believed she was doing the right thing. It would've been nice of Leigh to let her explain why.
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