Released in The King's Speech slot, The Iron Lady is a surprisingly melancholy and brutal look at the cruelty and loneliness of old age, and the fact that it focuses on the life of Margaret Thatcher serves simply to juxtapose onset senility with the life story of the woman who became one of the most powerful people in the world at her peak. It is uncomfortable to watch the frail elderly character portrayed this sadly in her own lifetime, yet this is probably the best part of Meryl Streep's truly remarkable performance, giving the currently aged ex-Prime Minister a sense of dignity, warmth and despair that evokes sympathy rather than pity. The film is stuffed with great British character-actor performances, notably Jim Broadbent and Harry Lloyd as the older and younger incarnations of Denis Thatcher, and the broad historical canvas of the second half of the twentieth century is effectively re-created. The writing is occasionally naive, but the constantly shifting time-structure is interesting and Lloyd handles her actors and overall direction much better than seen in Mamma Mia! Forget the politics - The Iron Lady is a remarkably-played look at the life of a singular woman from the optimism of youth to the sadness of her twilight years.
1 comment:
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady is outstanding. I would forget I was watching Meryl and felt sucked right into the character, this story and the parallels to our current affairs right now. After watching Margaret Thatchers story, personal and political, you can't help but feel proud as a woman, you could see her determinations, the stress and her personal life take its toll as the movie went on. You could see how strong she was, how well she did and the lessons she taught us. After watching this movie, It is my opinion that anyone running for office should watch this movie as well as every American. It has to touch some of them unless they have a frozen heart, which very well could be, but could also help provoke some changes in our own troubled economy and tax/financial situation. Inspiring movie, would highly recommend to everyone.
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