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Two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep turns in another breathtaking performance in the film "The Iron Lady," a biography of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher was one of the first women to become a major world leader, and she is both respected by her admirers and reviled by her detractors. Unfortunately, the film plays like an unfulfilling cliffnotes version of Thatcher's life story.
"The Iron Lady" begins with an elderly Thatcher (Streep, in old age makeup) suffering from dementia and cared for by her concerned daughter, Carol (Olivia Colman). Thatcher is seen talking to the ghost of her late husband, Denis (Oscar winner Jim Broadbent), which seems to be her source of comfort when she becomes confused. The action cuts back and forth between these scenes and flashbacks that tell Thatcher's life story. The flashbacks depict her early life as the daughter of a small town grocer, when she first started dating Denis, her election first as Secretary of Education and later as Prime Minister, some of the crises she faced while she led the country, and her resignation in 1990 after eleven years as Britain's leader.
The performances in the film are first rate. Meryl Streep is outstanding as Margaret Thatcher, looking and sounding so much like her that it can only be described as amazing. More than that, Streep captures all of the emotions her character requires perfectly, making her performance one of genuine depth that goes beyond simple impersonation. Streep won a Golden Globe for this movie, and she is likely to receive her 17th Academy Award nomination for it as well. Jim Broadbent does an equally excellent job as Thatcher's husband.
The movie suffers in its lackluster screenplay and its unexceptional direction. Screenwriter Abi Morgan, who is receiving good reviews for his work on the sex addiction drama "Shame," misses the mark with this film. It seems as though she approached the script by finding several history books about Thatcher, marking certain events with a yellow highlighter, and deciding to dramatize some of it. She stuffs too many points into the story without going into much detail about any of them. When Thatcher first runs for Prime Minister, for example, she is shown making several speeches and getting elected. But, there is no information about why the people of Great Britain actually elected her in the first place.
The entire film continues in this way. Resentment against Thatcher grew because of the way she handled several labor union strikes, but viewers never learn the reasons. Great Britain went to war against Argentina for control over the Falkland Islands, but the film never explains what that conflict was about, other than that Thatcher thought the Islands belonged to the British. Several IRA bombings occurred in England while Thatcher was in office, including at her own residence. When Thatcher and her husband are shown to have survived the bombing, what happened next is not depicted. Instead, the action cuts to something else. Thatcher's downfall and resignation are not well handled, either. The "how" and "why" these things happened during Thatcher's time in office are missing entirely from the screenplay.
Director Phyllida Lloyd, who also directed Streep in "Mama Mia," does not do the screenplay any favors by giving the audience brief segments and montage sequences rather than a cohesive story. Her actors carry the show, as there is nothing more to offer. Lloyd distills Thatcher's complex and interesting life down to a superficial examination.
"The Iron Lady" is an impressively acted film, but it fails as a biography. Viewers never learn what made Margaret Thatcher tick or why she made the decisions that she did. The film could have been enlightening, but instead leaves the audience wanting more.
"The Iron Lady" receives 2 out of 5 stars.
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