The Iron Lady (2012)

Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady (2012)

Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloyd, Iain Glen


What do you get when you combine The King's Speech with J. Edgar, and then throw in a dash of Meryl Streep? I'll tell you what you get. You get a pretty good movie, in spite of its faults; you get a fast pass for Meryl Streep to get her fourteenth Academy Award for Best Actress nomination; you get The Iron Lady.

The Iron Lady is, in its basest form, a case study on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who became the first woman in the modern world to ever serve as the head of state of a country. Meryl Streep plays Thatcher at the majority of her ages, assisted in the earlier years by Alexandra Roach, who, while not the best choice at all to play the young Maggie, holds her own. 

Once again, Streep proves herself as she tackles this role with fierce dedication and startling accuracy. For those who have watched Thatcher wane from afar, now is a chance to see an up close and personal -- albeit slightly fictionalized, most likely -- view of what she is like now, and will continue to be like.

The majority of the film chronicles Thatcher's rise to power, and in an interesting parallel, also shows the aging Thatcher's battle with herself. Early on in the film, it becomes clear that the ghost of her husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent) is haunting her through hallucinations, most likely caused by a disease such as Alzheimer's that has begun to afflict her as old age creeps up on her. The parallel itself is manifested in the struggle Streep's Thatcher has with herself -- in her younger years, she fights against others to prove that women as a species can be just as powerful as men; in her elder years, she fights against these hallucinations to prove that she can be just as strong as she once was.

As previously stated, Meryl Streep is the star of the show, and she flaunts that power expertly. By now, the world is aware that this woman -- this marvelous woman -- can pull just about anything out of her hat, and she does so ten-fold in this film. It's hard to imagine that a woman who is so delightfully herself, and, if you know anything about her personal life, is perhaps almost the complete opposite of Thatcher in her beliefs, can so easily step into a role and make it sympathetic at the same time. 

Put simply, Streep's performance makes the movie -- it is better than the movie as a whole. Sometimes, it seems like the rest of the movie serves as a skeleton, constructed simply for the purpose to deliver this performance unto us. And perhaps, it is. 

There is one other performance that helps lift the film up to be more than just a skeleton, however, and that is Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher. When faced with relatively wooden supporting cast members (Alexandra Roach is even cringe-worthy at times as a young Margaret), performances like Broadbent's are welcomed with open arms. He makes you fall in love with and hate Denis at the same time, and pushes Meryl Streep to her limits as she fights for the power in every scene the elder Margaret and her hallucinations of Denis share.

The Iron Lady is a biopic in the most traditional sense. Meryl Streep leads the charge in her way, and this time it might actually get her some recognition at the Oscars (after God only knows how many years) if Michelle Williams or Viola Davis doesn't sweep in and take it from her. 

Final Rating: 8.1/10
Notable Performance: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher