The Iron Lady (2012)

Absolutely the worst movie.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene. Without a doubt the best part of 'The Iron Lady' is easily Meryl Streep's amazing and terrific perfomance but unfortunately? Besides that? There isn't anything much to it except her role and her devotion to the film plus the make up was insane but the film and the rest of the casting? Was pretty damn forgettable and below average.

This drama film is a biopic of Margaret Thatcher. Most of the film is set in what was then the present day - with her as an octogenarian who had to retire from public life and is suffering from advanced dementia. There are flashbacks to various points in her life.I don't know why the makers chose to centre the film on her old age - the least interesting part of her life. The flashbacks give little context - and show far too little of her life prior to her becoming a politician. The flashbacks miss out crucial years and important points in her political career as well. A biopic should show an overview of the subject's whole life - and should be able to be understood and enjoyed by viewers from various backgrounds. This film is so inadequate that few viewers will know significantly more about her after seeing it than they knew before they saw it. In order to follow what's going on, you have to already know a lot about Thatcher - and people already knowledgeable about her won't learn much from this. To make matters worse, there are some significant historical inaccuracies in the film.The only reason that I haven't given this one is that Meryl Streep's performance is good.

After reading the reviews I started watching this without much hope. It was however definitely more interesting than I thought it would be, but it was not primarily about the iron lady, Margaret Thatcher. It was instead a study of advancing dementia, and could have been about any old woman of 84, two years before her death. Hanging the details on someone who had led a life of distinction was really no more than a marketing ploy. After age 80 no-one, whatever or whoever they might have been, has much to look forward to, although they would have a lot to look back on. They would do better to find something other than an obsession with the past to occupy their thoughts. The film's title is a misnomer, since what it shows is not in any sense a narrative of Thatcher's actual life, and it is small wonder that most viewers feel deceived and cheated. However, a film titled Senility and Dementia would hardly attract much of an audience. It's a melancholy warning to anyone living beyond the age of 80, and here I include myself. In other respects it's a noteworthy impersonation by Streep.

I was surprised when I saw this movie and saw Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, mainly because I did not know that the former British prime minister was suffering from dementia. After watching the movie for the first time, I was curious to read some things and then I understood it. I went back to see the movie a second time, after a while, and only then I truly appreciate the work of this actress who, once again, shows us all her versatility. About Thatcher's life there is little to say. She is a contemporary public figure, almost all of us know her course and we have an opinion about her (positive or negative, it doesn't matter). This is an additional challenge for an actor but Streep has achieved it with great talent. The scenes with the elderly Thatcher are deeply disturbing because she is clearly confused and oblivious of reality because of the disease, that makes her vulnerable and dependent on other people's support. Its always difficult to see someone in this situation. These scenes still have one bad thing: when playing with constant temporal flashbacks, the film focus gets a little lost and divided between past and present, between the old Thatcher and the Thatcher who was head of government. This makes the film very confusing, especially for those who do not know well her action when she was in politics. Everything else in this film is good, from the scenarios to the way the film depicts the political action of the woman who most marked the 20th century for the British (just behind the beloved Queen Elizabeth, of course).