The Iron Lady

Between 1979 - 1990 the UK was lead by one of the most formidable women in history. One of the greatest actresses we have takes on the challenge of portraying this woman.

Phyllida Lloyd, the director of 'Mamma Mia', is not the director you'd consider for a film like this. But she has done a brilliant job with this film. The structure is Margaret today looking back over her life and trying to battle with dementia. This is an excellent technique and is a wonderful way to tell the story. Because the modern scenes are set after her husband Dennis has died so he acts as a kind of personification of her conscience. She is getting over her grief and is struggling with not having him there to guide her. While I grew up in the 80's and heard of Margaret, I was too young to know much about her. I did however get the impression that she was not well liked, despite being Prime Minister for 11 years. This film is kind of a sympathetic portrayal of her. It does not shy away from showing her as a bossy woman who does not suffer fools gladly. But you come to understand that she had to be like that in order to get where she was. Being a woman in such a male dominated society, she had to be forceful and tough. That is one important thing you need to know about this film, that it does not focus very much on her political career. There are edited highlights of some of the major events she was involved in but the film is more focused on who she is as a woman. That might be my only very small problem with the film. I would have liked to see more about the politics of what she did. How she came to make the decisions she did and what led to that. It is only a minor quibble but as I said it is not that type of film.

I don't think I need to tell you how good Meryl Streep is. This role merely cements her as the greatest actress who ever lived. You can not imagine anyone else playing this role. Meryl makes it her own. I got really emotional watching her, just from being totally blown away by her brilliance. You forget you are watching an actor playing a role and you feel you are seeing the real Margaret Thatcher. She certainly deserves to win the Best Actress Oscar next year, but I kind of feel that it is far too obvious and so she may not get it. But you never know. Her team mate in this film is the brilliant Jim Broadbent. If there is anyone else that deserves to win awards it is Jim. You needed a really strong actor for Meryl to play off and he steps up to the challenge. Alexandra Roach is wonderful as the younger Margaret Thatcher. It would have been nice to see more of Margaret's earlier days to see more of her. As mentioned above there is very little of Margaret's political side so we don't see much of the men she worked with. Anthony Head is the one who gets the most screen time and is excellent as one of her closest advisers Geoffrey Howe.

While most of the publicity for the film is all about Meryl Streep's brilliant performance, it is still an excellent film in its own right. You may think you know Margaret Thatcher but go see this film to find out more about her. Just don't expect too much about her political career.