THE IRON LADY – The Review

THE IRON LADY is a biography of Margaret Thatcher,  the first woman elected prime minister of England (1979 – 1990). She led the country out of a recession, led a war in defense of the British Falkland Islands, confronted unions and the influence of the then Soviet Union which earned her the nickname of “Iron Lady”.  A staunch conservative, Ms Thatcher is one of the most divisive figures in 20th century politics and, despite her many accomplishments, despised by the feminist left.  Director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan have made a movie about her flashback-riddled dementia while their subject is still alive, a bold move that had many of her supporters worried that, especially with the casting of Hollywood liberal Meryl Streep in the lead, would result in a blasphemous hatchet job. But the film is more admiring and considerate than I expected, hedging in its politics, but that’s part of the problem with the film. It’s not a left-wing mudslinger (or a fawning conservative glorification), but it may have been more lively if it were. Getting worked up is more fun than being bored. THE IRON LADY is a straightforward academic bio that touches all the bases of her life but is never particularly insightful or profound. Streep is amazing in the role, but she’s better than the material.

THE IRON LADY presents Margaret Thatcher in current day as an aging (she’s currently 86), lonely widow, declining in health and doddering around her London home chatting with the ghost of her late husband Dennis (a cheery Jim Broadbent). She’s tended to by her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) and a cadre of assistants who help schedule her occasional dinner appearances and photo-ops. Her life is told through a series of flashbacks, an episodic tour of career highlights that squeezes every major event in her life into a sort of colorful montage. The best scenes are these flashbacks, with Alexandra Roach briefly playing Thatcher as a young grocer’s daughter muscling her way into the male-dominated field of politics. All the capstones of her reign are all presented; an historic miners’ strike, the Falkands war, and her kinship with Ronald Reagan. But those sequences are too brief as THE IRON LADY is always in a hurry to jump ahead to the present, frail Thatcher, as if eager to show off Streep’s startlingly life-like old-age make-up.

American filmgoers, especially younger ones with no context of this woman, simply may not find her story interesting enough to spend two hours watching her wander about confused in her nightgown and reminiscing about her life, a repetitive framing device that gets old. Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher is an example of acting at its finest. Made up to look remarkably like Ms Thatcher, Streep also has her voice and movements down to a near-science. Lest it sound like she is just doing a great impersonation instead of a full-fledged performance, it should be noted that Streep digs deep enough to uncover a flawed but dignified woman with a sympathetic soul. Despite its flaws THE IRON LADY is a worthwhile biography that deserves to be sought out if you have any interest in the last word on one of the 20th century’s most famous and influential women. The ultimate vision of Thatcher in THE IRON LADY – a vision Streep puts into a superbly rounded shape – is as a tough old broad, a warrior who’ll go to her death defending the decisions she made for the country she served.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars