The Iron Lady Reviews

This film is mostly propaganda glorifying Margaret Thatcher and trying to get the audience to empathize with her while demonizing the working class hurt by her terrible policies that are hurting United States and British citizens today. I will credit the movie did offer the consequences of her policies, and the police brutality.

'The Iron Lady' is known to be one of Meryl Streep's best performances! Definitely! The film has also received mixed reviews, disagree! This is one of the best movies 2011 has to offer! Meryl Streep is brilliant as Margaret Thatcher and the storytelling is very well told! Definitely a great must-see masterpiece!

Honestly, I never liked Margaret Thatcher. I would go even further by saying that she pretty much embodied the political ideas I despised. Still, it doesn’t mean a movie about her should be uninteresting. In the contrary, she is basically the only woman who managed to have such an impact on British political history, hell, in world political history. Unfortunately, the whole thing was poorly structured and misguided from the start which is hardly surprising when since they thought it was a good idea to hire the director of ‘Mamma Mia!’. Indeed, who cares that she was some lonely senile lady at the end of her life? I mean, we will pretty much all end up like this and I thought it was really unfair to portray one of the toughest women that ever lived in such disposition. Same thing about her husband, Jim Broadbent gave once again a really solid performance but they spent just way too much time dwelling on their relationship. They were dealing with a political leader who shaped, for good or bad, Great Britain’s identity, that’s what we wanted to see and, instead, they just quickly told us what happened like some bullet points which was really disappointing. Fortunately, Meryl Streep was just brilliant, as usual, and it is thanks to her that the whole thing was watchable but, without her, it would have been a big waste of time. To conclude, I still think it is worth a look but, with such potential, it could have been much better.

I think that "The King's Speech" is a decent movie, and so is this. It's more watchable than "Lincoln", at least, which is a 19th-century quasi-biblical affair. And, as much as I prefer the Cinderella side of life, even Disney is not iron-fisted about what is and is not a Princess thing, if that makes sense. (And, she wasn't Queen, so....)

And the side of it on her husband and the state of her mental health.... was possible to relate to, I think.

And you have to give her some credit for saving Britain from anarchy, of course.

Although I still prefer the White Album. It's complicated.

(8/10)

Whilst I was engaged by Streep and Broadbent's performance, the film is horribly flawed. A lack of focus on a particular aspect of Thatcher's life makes for a disjointed mess of a film. Many key characters of Thatacher's administration are underused, such as Anthony Head. We seem to see an image of Thatacher that just didn't quite happen in that way. I might be in the minority here, but I would preferred Davis to have won the Oscar.

The more I think about this film...the more I get annoyed

The Iron Lady is an average film which relies only on the glorious performance from Meryl Streep.

Due to its dull script and somewhat little emotionally appealing the film can not sustain alone and needs other means to get poignant.

The dramatic appeal is that the film has taken more into account than the historical context of Thatcher’s life, it has no relevance on the film scene of a poorly explored and superficial. The brilliant and magnificent interpretation of Meryl Streep was Oscar worthy which it is the only strong point of the film.

The flick struggled too much to try to have an appeal with the public and therefore lacked focus in relation to the biographical history of the character.

"Some one must say the unsayable."

"I will never be one of those women who stay silent on the arms of the husband, once life must matter"

Theae are the words uttered by Margrate Thatcher and she not only said that but have proved them. The Iron Lady the movie based on the former prime minster of England was a good one that sketches the life and struggle of her through out her life.

Was she reamined successful or failed the decision of course lies with not only the history but also with the people of England.

An enjoyable movie and Meryl Streep was awesome and she rightly get the Oscar for that performance. Although movie didnt get the OSCAR but it did get the nomination.

I maintain that Meryl Streep should not have been given an Academy Award nomination for The Iron Lady. How dare I! And I would tend to agree. Streep never turns in a half-assed or bad performance, and her technique is beyond words. And, yes, she is a paragon, a veritable living monument to what great acting can be, should be, and is. But the film fails to completely use her as a resource. Granted, she does wear the old age makeup wonderfully and acts through it (think of a movie like J. Edgar which featured actors caked in bad makeup unable to project through it), and she does project a steeliness and adopts a perfect accent. But I always felt like it was a great bit of mimicry, and not that impressive a piece of acting. This has to do with the script.

The script trots out her cabinet members, children, (deceased) husband, and other various members in her life and flashbacks when convenient to move the narrative forward. I couldn’t distinguish one member of her inner-circle from the other. Names, if they were mentioned at all, don’t register because no one is ever developed beyond the briefest and quickest of sketches. Especially egregious is the treatment of her family members. Her daughter drops in early on to take care of the elderly Thatcher, and promptly disappears for long stretches throughout the rest of the movie. And, worse still, Jim Broadbent, a fantastic actor, is given practically nothing to work with as the specter of Thatcher’s husband, Denis. His character is not consistently written, and some of that could be attributed to the fact that he’s mostly viewed as a ghostly presence to torture Thatcher in her old age and prompt her flashbacks.

Perhaps if the film had taken a point-of-view on Thatcher, good, bad, or otherwise, or had a more overall message to deliver about her and her life, it would have been immensely better. As is, Thatcher seems to have sprung up fully formed and to have never changed or grown as an individual. Her questionable policies and decisions are only briefly touched upon. It’s like a Cliff Notes version of a current politician who deserves a longer, more fully developed treatment. But Streep has made a point lately of working with directors, and a few projects, well below her talent-level. The Iron Lady was directed by the same woman who did Mamma Mia!, that should be all you need to know.

Good performance by Meryl Streep，but not thorough based on history.I admire Margaret so much for her courage and determination，unfortunately........the movie failed to deliver enough of this.It focused too much on Margaret's emotions towards her husband！！！！！！！！！

The most important thing to understand about The Iron Lady before watching it is that it’s not aiming to only appeal to those part of the Conservative Party that Margaret Thatcher led for so many years, and nor does one have to like her to get full enjoyment out of this film. Meryl Streep chosen for the role of Thatcher is literally like fate meets the eye as one of the most powerful film actresses in history portrays one of the most powerful women in history. Considering that The Iron Lady does have its fair share of flaws and could have been a masterpiece, Streep’s breath-taking performance as Margaret Thatcher saves the film and is another one of her most memorable and treasured performances.


The most surprising yet biggest controversial flaw that The Iron Lady suffers from that it’s not only a bio-pic but there were numerous scenes particularly in the scenes with elderly Thatcher, that there were aspects of psychological-drama that frequently consisted of on-running gags and occasionally dark scenes. Plus, having to mix in However, the positives within those components are that it added a slight more emotional attachment and realism to Thatcher’s character and her current situations in her life. The Iron Lady perhaps would have been a stronger film if it just included the story of young Margaret and PM Margaret and the fact that it was mixed in three different stories at the same time with the approximate 105-minute duration made the film as a whole feel rather rushed and incomplete.


Phyllida Lloyd, the lady behind beautiful musical Mamma Mia! ironically starring Meryl Streep, makes only her second feature film thus far and collaborates with Streep once more with a more serious story with up-close and personal aspects to it. The biggest problem with Lloyd’s direction within this one was that although the art direction and costume design were spectacular, there is something that is a tad too glistening and colourful which has been the largest fault for many historical motion pictures over the years. Plus, there were the occasional humourous segments that were rather unnecessary and were more or less like on-running but totally unexpected gags that are thrown in rather than adding jokes that are appealing to make the audience feel somewhat humoured and lively entertained by it.


Meryl Streep has been an Oscar goldmine in the majority of her films throughout her career following 17 Academy Award nominations with only 2 wins, but her performance as Margaret Thatcher is beyond belief as she brings forth not only Thatcher’s featured characteristics in terms of physical appearance but manages to portray her posh British accent very accurately and her mannerisms and general attitude to peers around her! Streep’s role as Thatcher almost precisely resembles the breath-taking Academy Award winning performance from Helen Mirren in her role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. So, with this very strong positive aspect that the film bestows, The Iron Lady is a film that has been miraculously saved from major disappointment that could walk away with an Oscar.


Jim Broadbent has been in some of Britain’s most favoured films over the years, including an Academy Award win in Iris back in 2001, but although he looked fantastic as Sir Denis Thatcher, alongside Meryl Streep as the Iron Lady, there was something about him that wasn’t entirely appealing. For example, within the subplot about Thatcher’s older life after Denis had passed, Broadbent was more of a less-serious character than somebody seeking to aid his wife in moving on with her life. So, in that sense, one could say that he was a bit of a sadist. Other vital cast members Anthony Head, Olivia Colman, Richard E. Grant, Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd all deliver fine performances in their respective roles too.


Overall, The Iron Lady is one of those films that is enjoyable to watch but unfortunately could have been something truly great in so many other aspects that we didn’t really witness. You will have already seen better bio-pics in the past but at the same time, the same could be said oppositely as there are other ones out there that are even worse. As already stated, you don’t need to be a fond lover of the Conservative Party or Margaret Thatcher to appreciate The Iron Lady but Meryl Streep’s performance is mesmerizing and it has given her yet another solid opportunity for her to receive a third but long overdue third Academy Award win.