La Dame de fer

Meryl Streep is "The Iron Lady," Margaret Thatcher, in her Oscar-winning performance from 2011.

I'm a little bit at a loss here. I'm not British, so as far as what Mrs. Thatcher did and did not do during her tenure, there's no way I can comment on the way it was portrayed. It does seem from reading other reviews that dramatic license was used.

I really can only write about the film and the acting. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, "The Iron Lady" uses flashbacks of an elderly, widowed, demented Mrs. Thatcher to tell her story. It's on the choppy side. That Thatcher was a strong, determined, ambitious woman, there is no doubt, but there were smoother ways to tell her story.

As far as Meryl Streep, as someone who was an actress myself and as someone who has been watching Meryl Streep since she was in the film "Julia," I can say that initially, there was criticism of her because you could, as actors say, "see her working." When she made a "choice" as an actress, it was transparently just that, a choice, not part of the character. I heard someone speak of her once, and she said, "I watch her and I think oh, what an interesting choice." Well, as the years have gone by, a lot of that is less evident, and many of her performances have been nothing short of magnificent. I must say that I am very, very sensitive to "acting," where someone puts on a character like they would a coat. In a biopic, this becomes an impersonation.

I won't say there were no moments of "impersonation" here, maybe there were a few, but Streep did an absolutely fabulous job inhabiting Margaret Thatcher. I can't imagine how many hours of footage she watched, and when she was elderly, Streep was elderly in her walk and in every other way possible. Having had a mother with dementia, the look in Streep's eyes when Thatcher zoned out was perfection, right on.

One reviewer said "impersonation" is easy to do. Maybe, but this wasn't impersonation. I felt it was organic, and I lost awareness that I was watching Meryl Streep.

The real star of the film was her performance, not the script. I can't comment on the strong resemblance actors had to other politicians. If they did, there's nothing wrong with that.

All in all, worth seeing for Streep's performance.

This film's strength lies in the acting by Meryl Streep. She breathes life into the persona of Margaret Thatcher and makes her feel like an authentic person rather than a caricature (whether positive or negative). However, the film has no other strengths. The story is completely unfocused and there is no overall point or theme to the random events.

An ageing Margaret Thatcher struggles to deal with the passing of her husband Dennis, and looks back at her rise to Britain's top job.

I looked at the relatively low score, and wondered how much of it was to do with the film, and how much was to do with the level of dislike that still exists for the former Prime Minister.

There's something missing, and I think it's the direction and the actual storytelling, it's so clunky, if someone were to re-edit this film, I think they could do something with it.

It's a fascinating story, Britain's first woman Prime Minister, a story that deserved to be told. For me, the good outweighs the bad, but the elements were here for this to have been a superb film, sadly it just isn't.

I liked the way the original news footage is mixed in, it's well fused. If only they'd have shown her Spitting Image character.

Meryl Streep delivers an outstanding performance, she is sensational, the voice, the poise, the body language, she is fantastic. Jim Broadbent is wonderful as Dennis, the pair combined so well.

6/10.

Before viewing, "The Iron Lady", I didn't really know much about Margaret Thatcher. Other than she was the prime minister of England for 11 years, she was a very controversial figure and still is to this day. So I was really interested to see the film and I decided to visit the WGA screening.

Now let me begin by saying, Meryl Streep embodies Margaret Thatcher. She doesn't just look like her, but she talks like her, her facial expressions are spot on. Meryl Streep becomes Margaret Thatcher. I would be shocked if she doesn't win an Oscar for this performance. The supporting cast is good too, Jim Broadbent gives an excellent performance, everyone is just great.

However aside from the top notch acting, the movie had a few flaws. The story was uninteresting at times, the flashback scenes were a bit muddled and a little confusing. The movie felt a little too safe, it tried too hard, not to be controversial. Although I don't entirely blame the film itself for that. Margaret Thatcher was such a decisive person, that whichever side the film picked, it would be criticized by a lot of people. I guess the film ultimately achieved the goal.

I also liked the movie didn't dwell too much on the politics, but on the character of Margaret Thatcher. We see the human side of The Iron Lady herself, beyond all the partisan politics and rumors, we get to see a very personal and sad side of her. The subplot focusing on Thacther's grief over her husband's death, as the older version battles with hallucinations and an unwillingness to let go of her dear Denis are heartbreaking.

Overall the movie was really well done, but just shy of greatness. Meryl Streep's performance and the supporting cast, truly elevates the film into a great biopic. Although I wished a little more time was spent on focusing on her political life, the movie successfully showed a deep and moving side of the prime minister. Which a lot of biopics fail to do. Whatever your opinions might be on Margaret Thatcher, don't fault the movie because of the opinion. And I highly respect Phyllida LLoyd, Meryl Streep, Abi Morgan and others for trying to portray such a decisive and highly controversial figure.

When the film begins, it's a little confusing. Since Margaret Thatcher has been suffering in real life from dementia is recent years, her muddled thoughts are mirrored in the film. For example, some of the scenes with her husband take place AFTER his death--as she didn't always realize he was not there. It's all quite sad and is probably NOT the way many want to remember this great lady. However, there is nothing evil about aging and memory problems--and I applaud the film for its unflinching view of a severely debilitated woman--but why spend so much of the film on this? It was THE theme of the movie--more so than her political life. It also made the film VERY confusing and difficult to follow--and the sequence is quite jarring. In hindsight, I would have preferred a more traditional narrative and I assume most others would agree--especially since too much of the film is about her jumbled mind today and not her many achievements. It also might have been best that such a pathetic sort of persona had come out well after Thatcher's death--it seemed rather sad to do a film like this now. I would have simply ended the film after she stepped down as Prime Minister.

Despite this well deserved criticism, it's still a film I recommend. Although the writing could have been better, the acting and makeup couldn't. Meryl Streep rightfully earned the Oscar for Best Actress for this one--perhaps her best performance to date. To put it succinctly, she WAS Margaret Thatcher! And, to make this illusion even more real, the makeup was perfect--aging her in a manner that made you truly believe what you were seeing.