Iron Lady, more like Old Lady!

The most important thing to say about this entire film is that the performances given by Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher and even more notably by Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher are phenomenal. If Meryl Streep isn’t the odds on favourite for an Oscar then I will be very surprised. Her portrayal of the former Prime Minister, her accent, and even her demeanour seems at times uncanny. The make-up and ageing effects are extraordinary, and the film is a Streep masterpiece with her acting skills on full display.

Yet beware as this is where my admiration of the film comes to an end. Based on the title and from having seen the trailer, I was excited and looking forward to seeing a film about the only female parliamentarian leader that Britain has ever known.

I had assumed, perhaps hoped that the film would show and unseen side of Thatcher at the height of her power. I had hoped for a blend of artful fiction combined with facts and perhaps opinions of those who governed alongside her or in opposition.

I had hoped to glimpse a side of the women that ruled with rigour and a firm hand. Too young myself to remember the times clearly I had thought that the film would focus on the most contentious issues of her time in power, the miner’s strikes, the battle with the unions, the Falklands war, the IRA, and how this lower middle class grocer’s daughter managed to find a way to the top of the greasy pole and remain in power for more than a decade. However, after twenty minutes in it was clear that the film was not going to deliver on any one of my expectations.

The early years of Thatcher’s career are glossed over, her struggle to become the first female Prime Minister in a rise up within a sea of men is hardly touched upon, and the most infamous policy decisions that she made are barely footnoted. Anyone wishing to see this film for any kind of reference to the events of the late 70s and throughout the 80’s will be severely disappointed. This film is less a look at the Iron Lady herself, but more on the brutal and cruel effects of dementia.

The film’s focus is on Thatcher as an old lady, struggling with the cruel and degenerative effects dementia has on the mind. She struggles to accept that her husband has died and any political drama in the film is seen as flashbacks in the declining mental agility of Thatcher. Whether intended to illicit sympathy, or intended as a profound look at the effects of this disease or age on even the most influential of figures, I am unsure. Given that Baroness Thatcher is still alive, I feel there are a number of elements in this film that cut to close to the quick and leaves the viewer wondering just how much of what is portrayed in a true representation and what is purely artistic licence and fictional writing.

Whether an advocate or opponent of Thatcher’s politics, I think the majority of people will be hoping that this is a film about the woman behind the politics of the time. It is not. This is not the hard hitting film that I had expected or even anticipated, and given its subject matter I felt a little let down.

Streep is truly spectacular and the film is reflective in many ways of the nature and effects of dementia.  All I would say though is that if you are looking for West Wing style political drama or a better understanding of the Iron Lady herself then this film is not going to meet your needs. I know no more of the politics, the decision making that went into the policy decisions, or how Thatcher made it as leader of the Conservative Party and then Leader of the country than I did before I went to see the film.

This is a depiction of an Old Lady more than it is of the infamous Iron Lady.