The Iron Lady (2012)

One of my all time favorites.

hyped garbage

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It seems we can't just can't have a normal biographical movie anymore without flashbacks. The flashback style is done for the purpose of showing us how events in someone's past effected their later decisions. Seeing the retired senile Margaret Thatcher was really unnecessary to this film. Can you imagine a Reagan biography starting out with a senile Reagan not knowing he is no longer president and talking to dead people? Unfortunately the senility scenes are needed so we can get to know the character of Marget Thatcher because the main biography part is poorly done with an over abundance of "red meat" sound bites.To make matters worse, the film then employs this technique during the flashback so there is a flashback within the flashback.I liked the young Margaret Roberts (Alexandra Roach) growing up in a man's world where the expectations of women were to stay out of business and politics. Her bucking the system was inspirational and it would have been a better film had we seen more of this and less of Margaret thinking her husband was still alive.The meat of the film picks up when she is the Education Secretary of the conservative party. England is facing a union strike crippling the nation. Marget doesn't like her party's leadership and decides to run for the leader of the Conservative Party. She correctly places herself in the hands of professions who tweak her for national appeal, including working on her shrill voice...but she keeps the pearls.The movie relates to today. England was in a recession and people couldn't pay their mortgage. Margret wanted to cut government spending in the midst of a recession contrary to everyone else, including her own party who worries about re-election. I expected to see a "Paid for by Ron Paul" after that speech.For me, the film becomes watchable when Thatcher has to weigh her decision to go to war over the Falkland Islands. Streep gives us some wonderful performances. But when I see Matthew Marsh miscast as Alexander Haig, I have to ask, "What were they thinking?"I went into this film thinking "5 stars" but reality set in as they killed this film on the editing floor. Horrifically edited and badly written. Whose idea was it really to have Streep walk around in an old house coat with messed up hair looking acting like Edith Bunker? The scenes of Streep moving through a crowd of faces, speaking her thoughts was another idea that failed. The soundtrack during the file footage scenes was terrible. Streep had a few strong scenes, but not enough to save this film. My advice: read the book.No f-bombs, no sex, brief nudity on file footage.

One spent so much time detesting Margaret Thatcher's policies and its consequences that one forgets she was a human being. Silly isn't it? Yes, but true. Now Meryl Streep, with all her powers, reminds us. Mrs Thatcher was a real person, a real woman and no matter how much we disagree with her, we cannot dismiss her. Meryl Streep makes sure of that. Her performance is an extraordinary piece of art and I have the feeling that it will grow in meaning and scope as time goes on. The humanity of the actress at the service of a political icon that thought that it didn't matter what people felt but what they thought as if the two were mutually exclusive. Thank you Meryl Streep, you've done something that my grandchilden's grandchildren will benefit from.

After reading the reviews I started watching this without much hope. It was however definitely more interesting than I thought it would be, but it was not primarily about the iron lady, Margaret Thatcher. It was instead a study of advancing dementia, and could have been about any old woman of 84, two years before her death. Hanging the details on someone who had led a life of distinction was really no more than a marketing ploy. After age 80 no-one, whatever or whoever they might have been, has much to look forward to, although they would have a lot to look back on. They would do better to find something other than an obsession with the past to occupy their thoughts. The film's title is a misnomer, since what it shows is not in any sense a narrative of Thatcher's actual life, and it is small wonder that most viewers feel deceived and cheated. However, a film titled Senility and Dementia would hardly attract much of an audience. It's a melancholy warning to anyone living beyond the age of 80, and here I include myself. In other respects it's a noteworthy impersonation by Streep.

I think it would have been very interesting to see how this film would have turned out had it been made my men. While Phyllida Lloyd and Abi Morgan call attention to Thatcher's gender, they ultimately don't make much of a statement about it. This is a poor choice considering the highly gendered nature of the political arena she is playing in. While I certainly do appreciate that attention paid to the subject - you can find countless films about male political and historical figures; women, not so much - I wish it had been done better. Gender seems to stump many filmmakers when it comes to women and politics, as demonstrated by Pablo Larrain's Jackie. As soon as the woman is not the supportive wife, people don't really know what to make of her. I hope that the lack of good features about women in politics doesn't stop future filmmakers from trying to make more films showcasing important women.