The Iron Lady

This is not a movie for everybody. Many perhaps would find it slow and boring, but those who lived the eighties and remember Margaret Thatcher, will find this film interesting since it brings back the figure of this woman who was a regular in the political headlines of that time. 

It begins in her last years when she is an elderly lady who struggles between reality and the fictional image of his late husband who was her constant company. The one who was once called with admiration and also fear, the Iron Lady, is presented as a frail being who has been forgotten by the nation she served so vehemently. The movie is full of flashbacks that are actually memories of Thatcher and they are also the way that helps comprehend what the film is to show about Thatcher. 

Thus, we witness her difficult beginnings in the world of Politics that was then reserved only to men, her obstination in not letting any opposing circumstance defeat her and her ascension that made her become the most prominent political female figure not only of her country but of the world of that time.

Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher, literally, which surprises a little since Streep is from the U.S., not Great Britain, but Streep's capacity to perform difficult roles is already proverbial. Streep is also the whole movie. Jim Broadbent as Dennis Thatcher, Margaret's husband, is great but is easily overshadowed by Streep's acting (. In fact, it is difficult to conceive this movie could have been done with an actress other than Meryl Streep. The sequence when she confronts U.S. diplomats who were weary to support England against Argentina over the islas Malvinas (which the British call  Falkland) is surely the best part of the picture.

As I said, in order to understand or appreciate this film correctly you have to know first who Thatcher was. The film is biographical but it also captures a fraction of History, a time when the world was more naive but also more violent, as I recollect it, and the actions of people with too much power, such as Thatcher, were the guarantee or denial that there would be another day. 

Great performances but no more. 

Three stars out of five for this one.