As a cynical young lawyer's clerk says in one of Dorothy Sayers's Peter Wimsey mysteries, "There's nobody like the British aristocracy to tell you a good, stiff lie without batting an eyelash."
-SPOILER-
The moral McGuffin driving this movie is the cover-up of a fatal hit and run accident. The victim is the husband of Maggie, who is the housekeeper of James and Anne's country house. Anne was the driver. Her fear of the consequences, and her husband's fear of losing her, lead them to conceal Anne's involvement from Maggie (as well as the police), with plenty of feigned condolence and repeated bare faced lies. Eventually Anne's conscience gets the better of her, her nerve breaks, and she confesses all -- whereupon Maggie immediately forgives her and cooperates in lying to the police.
Why? Because some years ago Maggie had been convicted of stealing from her former employer, the "local milord." By hiring her, Anne had restored Maggie to reputation, dignity, and a respectable place in the village community &c. &c, and Maggie's gratitude goes far enough to forgive not only Anne's accidental killing of her husband but also her employers' repeated lies to her about it. As far as the movie tells us, Maggie's forgiveness and complicity are freely offered, and even forced upon a guilt-ridden, unwilling Anne. Anne and James don't even have to write her a thumping cheque in compensation for her loss.
It all seems implausibly Vera Drake for a story set in the present day.
-SPOILER-
The moral McGuffin driving this movie is the cover-up of a fatal hit and run accident. The victim is the husband of Maggie, who is the housekeeper of James and Anne's country house. Anne was the driver. Her fear of the consequences, and her husband's fear of losing her, lead them to conceal Anne's involvement from Maggie (as well as the police), with plenty of feigned condolence and repeated bare faced lies. Eventually Anne's conscience gets the better of her, her nerve breaks, and she confesses all -- whereupon Maggie immediately forgives her and cooperates in lying to the police.
Why? Because some years ago Maggie had been convicted of stealing from her former employer, the "local milord." By hiring her, Anne had restored Maggie to reputation, dignity, and a respectable place in the village community &c. &c, and Maggie's gratitude goes far enough to forgive not only Anne's accidental killing of her husband but also her employers' repeated lies to her about it. As far as the movie tells us, Maggie's forgiveness and complicity are freely offered, and even forced upon a guilt-ridden, unwilling Anne. Anne and James don't even have to write her a thumping cheque in compensation for her loss.
It all seems implausibly Vera Drake for a story set in the present day.