The Iron Lady

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Cast: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach, Anthony Head and Richard E. Grant
Releasing in cinemas: 26 December 2011
Rated: M

Meryl Streep, like Helen Mirren, perfectly captures the essence of the regal character she plays in a truly remarkable performance in The Iron Lady. It’s a privilege to watch her, especially as the older Baroness Thatcher, totally convincing and sympathetic in the grip of dementia. Surely another Academy Award nomination is in the offing.  

The film is set in the present, as a lonely and sometimes disoriented Margaret Thatcher reflects on her controversial career as British Prime Minister for eleven and half years. As a dithering aristocratic elderly woman Streep pulls out all stops and manages to somehow to create a totally realistic portrait of old age. Few actors could manage the transition so well. The film does spend much time with the older Thatcher, reflecting her failing mental powers while maintaining a sense of dignity.

It opens with Thatcher in her 80s, sneaking out of Chester Square unsupervised to a local shop for milk. Returning for boiled egg breakfast with husband Denis (Jim Broadbent), whom we soon realize is no longer with us. She's talking to a dream ghost, admittedly a playful one, a happily amusing old guy balancing out the tragedy of dementia.

As Thatcher finally packs up her deceased husband’s clothes, there are triggered flashbacks to her upbringing as a grocer's daughter (now played by Alexandra Roach), her father Alfred (Iain Glen) a passionate Tory, who instills a politically aggressive attitude of survival. Her mother is relegated to washing up cups in the kitchen. She has early struggles to be selected as a Tory candidate and then meets the young mischievously funny Denis Thatcher (Harry Lloyd).

Then come her early days in the Houses of Parliament, driven by conviction and ambition with less attention to Denis and her young children. With a transformation of her image, she eventually becomes Britain's first female Prime Minister. Having absolute conviction, she enforces her economic policy determined to break the power of the unions, believing because she knows the price of butter she's in touch with the masses. She faces increasing resistance however from coalminers’ strikes, civil unrest and the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel.

Argentina then invades the Falkland Islands, and Thatcher has cut funds to her defense forces there, but now is determined to win the islands back by sending a task force, showing true grit despite public opinion. While popular on the world stage, she becomes increasingly autocratic as her policies divide the nation. Brutal news clips tell a darker story on the streets.

After a ridiculous tirade from Thatcher in Cabinet, her longtime ally Geoffrey Howe (Anthony Head) resigns and it's the beginning of the end when Michael Heseltine (Richard E. Grant) challenges her leadership.

While the film covers the important events in Thatcher's life (glossing over some controversial details as it goes), it's as much study of old age as we watch her lose grip on reality; and this is where Streep really shines in the role.

British theatre and opera director Phyllida Lloyd helms The Iron Lady, as she did Mamma Mia! also featuring Streep in that bouncy energetic act. Lloyd is well up to the task of a serious bio-pic, albeit with a sympathetic portrait of this polarizing political figure, making good use of cinema technique. The script is by Abi Morgan, who also scribed the forthcoming Shame. The film effortlessly cuts to various time frames in rather complex flashbacks, but they’re so cleverly conceived and executed it's extremely easy to follow the course of events. There are some inspired moments, including having the old Margaret appear in a scene of her remarkable heyday.

You'll long remember Streep's astonishing mimicry of the real Baroness Thatcher, using clever make-up and hair styling for every age she appears on the screen. The performance goes right down to capturing the distinctive speech mannerisms, even to a scene suggesting The King's Speech. It’s a portrait of a driven woman allowing ambition to overshadow her family. 

Back-up performances of merit come from Jim Broadbent (Another Year), Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) as her daughter Carol, and Alexandria Roach as the young Margaret. Particularly effective is Thatcher's choreographed entry into 10 Downing Street, against the touching sequence as she leaves her office for the last time, and dear dead Denis departing finally and forever with his packed suitcase.

Cinema is in love with the biopicm right now; while we now have The Iron Lady, coming up are My Week With Marilyn, and J. Edgar, both showcasing impressive performances. This time last year there was The King’s Speech and in December 2006, The Queen: all are Oscar material.  

John Bale