ABORTION DRAMA 'VERA DRAKE' WORTHY IN DEFEAT.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

NOTHING goes right in a Mike Leigh movie. The alternately brilliant (``Abagail's Party,'' ``Naked'') and indulgent (``Secrets and Lies,'' ``All or Nothing'') English miserablist even managed to make angst-filled neurotics out of chipper musical mavens Gilbert and Sullivan for ``Topsy-Turvy.''

So we know that ``Vera Drake,'' another one of Leigh's rare but perfectly rendered period pieces, is not going to turn out happily no matter how cheery it initially seems. We're talking Mike Leigh cheery, of course; the setting is 1950 London, a cramped tenement district, where the working class is still struggling to recover from the war.

But we know that the rationing of goods will soon subside and economic miracles are just around the corner. Plus, with plucky citizens like the bustling title character and her good-hearted husband Stan, how could the sun not soon shine on this sceptered isle?

Vera, played by triple Olivier Award-winning stage actress Imelda Staunton, just gives and gives and gives and is pleased to do so. She cleans rich folks' homes and seems to hold down a job at a light bulb factory, too. But Vera never lacks the urge or energy to care for shut-ins or whip up tasty meals for mechanic Stan (Phil Davis) and their two grown children, go-getting tailor Sid (Daniel Mays) and schlubby Ethel (Alex Kelly). And with upbeat, unquenchable kindness for all.

There is this other thing that Vera does, though, that her family doesn't know about. When a girl gets in trouble, Vera stops by and takes care of the matter. She wouldn't dream of charging for this service (though her black-marketing friend who arranges the abortions does, without telling her). As far as Vera is concerned, it's just another way to help.

Of course, 1950 British law sees it another way. And when Vera is arrested about halfway through the film - for, intriguingly, an uncharacteristic but near-lethally botched job - we're suddenly plunged back into the dire mindset of a Mike Leigh movie. This is where ``Vera Drake'' becomes both more interesting and, in one crucial aspect, a little frustrating.

Though implacable, the police and jurists arrayed against Vera treat her with uniform politeness, respect and sympathy. Some, though hardly all, of her own loved ones prove far less civil in their moral outrage (or is it social embarrassment?).

This is fascinating, as is Leigh's refusal to simplify any viewpoint of the abortion issue. There's also a late shot of self-satirizing humor - what could be funnier than a Mike Leigh Christmas? - that is a welcome break in the inexorable trudge to tragedy.

One bothersome thing, though: The minute the cops come to the door, Vera's personality does a complete 180. Staunton pulls off the instant collapse into abject despondency with total commitment and technical perfection; Vera's whole being deflates to a level from which it will never conceivably rise back.

But for such a ball of pragmatic optimism to capitulate so quickly and thoroughly at the first sign of trouble is just too, well, Mike Leigh. He's no doubt making a point about injustice or hypocrisy or people's illusions of usefulness, or all three. But he's mostly making an otherwise great movie glummer, schematic and more his way than it had to be.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

VERA DRAKE - Three and one half stars

(R: sex)

Starring: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight, Adrian Scarborough, Heather Craney, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly.

Director: Mike Leigh.

Running time: 2 hr. 6 min.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Westside Pavilion, West L.A.; Monica, Santa Monica; Edwards South Coast Village, Santa Ana.

In a nutshell: Humanistic, if ever-so-slightly schematic, study of a cheery English working class lady who gets in a heap of trouble for performing illegal abortions. Set in 1950 London, with social and attitudinal details just right.