The Iron Lady
Director Phyllida Law (“Mamma Mia!,” of all things) puts a few too many stylistic flourishes to work in the service of telling this story about British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the iconoclastic woman who, from 1979 to 1990, ruled Great Britain with an iron fist when it came to espousing her conservative ideals. The longer the film goes on, the more obvious it becomes that all Abi Morgan’s biting screenplay needed was a tour de force performance by the grand dame of American actresses, Meryl Streep. The living legend inhabits the role (through the use of great makeup artistry) like a second skin, as Thatcher tries to not just make a dent in the traditionally male-dominated field of politics, but shatter the glass ceiling for everyone in a way that people will talk about for years. She certainly accomplished that, even if it was at the expense of a middle class that had their economic safety taken away through Thatcher’s ultra-conservative policies, which ended up undoing her legacy when her own party found her impervious to compromise. If that sounds familiar to Americans, it shouldn’t be surprising, since Law and Morgan hit the parallels with our current Republican lawmakers over the head with a cricket bat. The film fairs better as it focuses on the elder Thatcher, long out of office, as she attempts to go about a normal life while fighting dementia, and conversing with her years-deceased husband (Jim Broadbent, who matches Streep beat-for-beat). Regardless, Thatcher is a fascinating subject, and in Streep’s triumphant turn (complimented by Alexandra Roach as the younger Thatcher), this strong, controversial figure in modern political history is more than given her due, no matter which side of the Atlantic you hail from.
