Earlier this week, Meryl Streep won the Golden Globe for best actress with this film where she portrays former British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher. There is no doubting that she is superb in this role and that the makeup artists have done a great job in making her look the part. Baroness Thatcher is a hugely polarizing figure but the reception of the film seems to be unanimous. It falls into the same trap as the film in my previous review of having an amazing lead performance that is not backed up by the film itself (Fassbender in Shame).
The early parts of the movie shows Thatcher as she is now, suffering from dementia and imagining that her dead husband (decent performance from Jim Broadbent) is still with her. The story set in the present is based around her finally throwing out her old husband's things and moving on with her life. This was an interesting idea to give purpose to these scenes but it is covered for too long in the first half and becomes tiresome as the film almost grinds to a halt. We are introduced to her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman of Peep Show fame who does well in a tough role) but aside from the fact we all know who she is I thought there was more they could have done with her character.
The other story involves a young Margaret Thatcher's (played by Alexandra Roach) developing into the first lady prime minster that is now known over the world. It gave an interesting insight of the rise of a women with the Conservative party at the time and the sexism that followed. Streep's portrayal of the feisty and stubborn leader is first class but most of the scenes and story lines from her time are not given long enough to develop. My girlfriend said after the movie that she knew nothing but the very basics about the Falklands War and the Miners strikes but didn't learn anything from the film as these events are quickly skipped over. One line near the end about MP's wanting to be popular rather than make the tough decisions that are best for the country seemed like a parting shot to the current government. At the end it shows Thatcher cleaning a teacup which when she was younger she said she would not to do to her future husband as that will be the day that she died. The scene at the end signified that although she is not dead there isnt anything left for her to give the world.
1.5/4 and a lot of that is purely down to Streep's performance as the Iron Lady.
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