I have never been a great fan of Margaret Thatcher, the politician, since she did very little to break down the glass ceiling during her term of office, but I do admire and respect her achievement as a woman, her strength, resilience and leadership skills. So I went to see The Iron Lady with a mix of expectations about the film, only one of which was fully realised with the performance of Meryl Streep as Mrs Thatcher. So good was her performance in fact, that it will for ever more be difficult to determine where the real ‘MT’ ends and the imagined begins!
The film is a closely observed exploration of Margaret’s life after politics and, more specifically, after the death of her beloved Dennis. In this biopic you see her pottering around in her grand home in the care of her daughter, administrative and security staff – all at odds with the reality of getting old and forgetful. You see Margaret’s descent into dementia and the inner workings of her mind – used as a device to reminisce about her life – emotional and professional.
We are exposed to surprisingly few flash backs to the high and low points of her political career, juxtaposed with the courtship and her subsequent marriage to Dennis Thatcher. It’s not as sentimentalized as it sounds, in fact the whole film is (I think) is deliberately understated and you come away with the sense that Margaret locked away a great deal of herself to achieve her ambitions. Her innermost feelings and insecurities are cleverly portrayed throughout the film by her imagined posthumous conversations with the late and beloved Dennis.
Beyond and above the amazing performances of Streep and her co-star Jim Broadbent as Dennis Thatcher, the star of the show has to be the hair and make-up team! There is always a ‘can I see the join’ moment when you watch a famous actor aged prematurely for a major screen role but here, well, all I can say is WOW! Apparently prosthetics were used to give Streep the lines and jowls that come unwelcomingly with age but it really is so fantastically well done, there are absolutely no distractions to take you away from what is a really up close and frank performance.
While on the subject of physicality, the other amazing thing about Streep’s performance along with the incredible recreation of her voice, is her movements. Streep has Maggie down to a T, if you’ll pardon the pun (just who is T anyway?!) representing her forthright and slightly ungainly stateliness that develops throughout her political career and then diminishes as old age overtakes her.
So if you go to see this film expecting a full on political romp, with the cut and thrust of politics being played out in the historical annuls of Westminster, then you will be disappointed. This is a film about a woman who made history and supposes her life behind the scenes played out so publicly in her career. Yes, we do see the joy of her winning her first seat, the victory and rhetoric of becoming Britain’s first female prime minister and the sadness as she finally leaves Downing Street for the last time, but more importantly the film depicts Margaret’s humanity and frailty.
This is clearly not a documentary and certain critics need to be reminded about this and, as you leave the cinema, just remind yourself that Margaret Thatcher is still alive, if no longer in a full state of mind, at least in body. The obituary hasn’t been written yet.
Check out this insightful interview HERE with Jim Broadbent and the film’s director Phyllida Lloyd on www.digitalspy.co.uk
Lynne Parker
