Ahhh! Thatcher!
Now I’ve got that off my chest, here’s Katherine Afford’s excellent review of Meryl Streep’s ‘The Iron Lady’. Enjoy!
Featuring an array of famous stars, “The Iron Lady” is well worth a watch. The film, which features top actors such as Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher, Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe, Alexandra Roach as a young Margaret Thatcher and Harry Lloyd as a young Denis Thatcher holds your attention well. Above all, of course, who could forget the impeccable Meryl Streep as Margaret in her older years.
Written by Michael Hirst and Abi Morgan, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, how could anyone want to miss this portrayal of an exceptionally influential woman.
The film is centred on Lady Thatcher and her rise to power as the first female Prime Minister. It emphasises the way in which she came to power in the face of adversity, breaking barriers to success such as gender and class. She still remains very highly regarded by many as one of the most influential and famous women of the twentieth century – the real question is whether that is shown well in the film.
Streep portrays the true character, formidable nature and presence of Margaret superbly at all times. I was never once left feeling disappointed in her performance, as she an outstanding actress. However, there was for me a slight level of predictability. It was in the main an excellent impersonation of Margaret, and I did not feel it deviated from any of my expectations of what the film would contain, in terms of the way in which she was depicted. Overall Streep gives a true-to-form performance, not leaving much to the imagination of the filmgoer.
The feature does show Margaret effectively as a daughter, wife and mother., additions I found very effective. As a moviegoer, I want to watch a film that shows me something I don’t know – more about the person and less about the persona, perhaps. However, overall this film was more about the persona of Margaret than the person, as far as I was concerned.
An uncanny likeness?
I was, however, very impressed – maybe most of all actually – by the acting of Alexandra Roach as the young Margaret Thatcher. Relatively unknown as an actress, I found her refreshing and very well matched with Harry Lloyd as the young Denis. Their relationship seemed very genuine and one could understand how Margaret developed into such an influential woman based upon that relationship.
Jim Broadbent also gave an excellent performance, but it seemed a little lost in the film. He was a main character, yet did not hold much of a presence. Perhaps, for so many, he will always be the dad of Bridget Jones…
Once an actor plays a certain type of character, it can be difficult to get away from that. I associate him with far less touching roles.
Now, in terms of plot, much of The Iron Lady centres around tottering old Margaret in her apartment and shows her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) stepping in at regular intervals to bring her back into the real world.
Margaret spends most the time looking through old memorabilia and hallucinating that her dead husband is with her. At the start of the film I found this exceptionally moving, but after an hour of it, it was beginning to feel overdone.
These flashbacks were what essentially told the story of her rise to power, as a result more of a focus on the younger Margaret and the way in which she overcame gender and class to reach her position would have been a better approach. It felt as if the flashbacks were included as a necessity, not as a worthy part of the film.
Overall, I left feeling as though The Iron lady was a less than glorious portrayal of the real Margaret Thatcher. I found myself saddened at her elderly state, and her loneliness was exceptionally poignant to see.
While the features does highlight most of the highs and lows of her career, I would rather have seen less of that and more of the things we did not already know about her.
She was a truly influential woman, who sacrificed a lot for ambition. Perhaps, in Margaret’s own words, “what Britain needs is an Iron Lady”. I leave it for you to decide.
Katherine Afford
Recent Comments