The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep is the greatest film actress of my lifetime. From first seeing her in The Deer Hunter and Sophies Choice on down through the decades to Julie and Julia, she simply has been the best. In her latest role, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, she once again has come up with an amazing performance. Unfortunately, the disjointed script, the lack of a central premise or plot to this biopic wasted much of that performance.
You won’t learn much of anything interesting about Margaret Thatcher, a remarkable woman indeed in terms of her personality and motivation. The circumstances of her controversial stances on labor unions, foreign affairs, terrorism etc. are vague at best. Presenting them without the heart and soul of the times makes for a poor film. Even wonderful acting couldn’t save it.
The part of the film, I found most compelling and yet many friends and colleagues of Thatcher felt was inappropriate, were the scenes of her as an elderly reclues suffering from dementia. Sad to say the film The Iron Lady might more realistically have been titled, It’s Tough To Grow Old.