The Iron Lady

LOVEFiLM Review The Iron Lady

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  By Tom Charity from LOVEFiLM

  The first week of a new year and a hugely anticipated film hits the cinemas. Unfortunately while Meryl Streep is, as always, impeccable, the script lets The Iron Lady movie down.

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Most helpful review The Iron Lady

• A very good film which should sweep up many awards and confirms Streep's status as a "great".

   

  By roncoach (365 reviews) from suffolk , 05 Jan 2012

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  I have just seen early screening and found this to be a very memorable and watchable movie.
  
  Meryl Streep is electrifying-----her 'new' career in the last few years must-----together with her long early career-----make her one of the all-time greats. I did not like her much at first, many years ago-----but she has slowly won me over.....and now I go back and see her 'old' films with a new pleasure. Her films in the last few years have been even better......she has aged like a fine wine and a very fine actress. As Mrs Thatcher, she is rivetting.
  
  Supporting casts are so important.....and this film benefits from the excellent Broadbent and Grant and others.
  
  There has been a lot of controversy about whether the film should have been made ( as with Helen Mirren's 'Queen'), especially in the way it looks at the present old lady suffering from dementia. But I think it HAD to be made (anyone who won 3 elections must have a biopic someday), AND I personally think that the present health status of Thatcher actually adds to the impact of the film.
  
  To get the personal political opinions out of the way first ( though they have nothing to do with my rating of the film) : I dislike everything that Thatcherism stood for----the selfishness, the widening gap between rich and poor, the wider divisiveness in society, the throwing away of public assets, the arrogance and distasteful dominance over any opinion that did not meet her own......and much much more.
  
  I think Tony Blair was a miracle worker to undo so much of what that woman did.......history will judge him more kindly in due course.
  
  Glad to get the personal politics out of the way.........the film portrays one of the political giants of the 20th century, and does it very well in this movie. I was particularly struck by Thatcher's rise to power, remarkable at a time when there were only 19 women MPs in the House of Commons and when the Tory Party were almost certain to reject a grocer's lower middle-class daughter ( we're now back to the norm with David Cameron and the class system, Eton, etc). Her rise to the leadership of the Tory Party made a big impact.....I wish more had been made of this aspect; and I wish more had been made of Ted Heath and the 'changeover' and reasons behind it.
  
  Yes, there are points to criticise in a negative way. But the overwhelming feeling is one of an absolute positive sense that this is a very good film that will become definitive and will be watched for many years to come, even when Thatcher's legacy is ( hopefully) forgotten.
  
  Highly Recommended.

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