The Iron Lady - Movie Review

As I unwind after a long day of teaching, I decided to flick on my DVD player (of which is way underutilised), and pop in the movie "The Iron Lady", the latest role carried almost flawlessly by the great dame, Meryl Streep.


Being a big fan of anything non-fiction, this biopic movie did not let me down.  Meryl Streep's performance has always been awe inspiring and it is no doubt that she is one of the greatest actors of her time.  Her performance gave the plot a strength and substance in which the movie itself, did not need to do much to portray the story of Lady Margaret.  

The director, Phyllida Lloyd, brings us through the eyes of an elderly Lady Thatcher that imagines the presence of her late husband, Denis, while she struggles to mourn his grief.  During these imaginary interactions with her deceased husband, Lady Thatcher is bombarded by flashbacks of her young life and her rise to power in Britain's political arena.


There has been criticism on this movie about the depths of the plot.  Many has criticised that the movie failed to portray the significance of Lady Thatcher's time in parliament and focused more instead to her dementia and depression for her dead husband.  There were also criticism  that the movie depended too much on documented historical footage to bring out the story of it.  

To a certain extent, some of the criticism does hold water but Streep's performance outweighed them.  Undoubtedly, it is true that the movie does lack substance and did somewhat of unjustice in portraying Lady Thatcher, however, it is to be reminded that this movie was written and directed to fit the palate of the general masses, just showing enough, but not too much, that it would bore.  The movie honestly wanted to show the 'softer' side of 'The Iron Lady', that even through the big things that she has done in her life, a woman's core is her family and the movie showed Lady's Thatcher's feminine side perfectly, to remind those who respected her as well as those who appalled her, that she is not only a woman of determination and strength to her country and people, but also to her family.


For more information about Lady Margaret Thatcher, click on the link below:
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/