The Iron Lady Review

Here is my first review for 2012. I just got back from seeing The Iron Lady on January 17, 2012. I was extremely impressed with this movie. I thought the acting was incredible and its a film centered around one of my favorite political figures in former Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher. The movie dances between her current life battling with dementia and seeing hallucinations of her deceased husband, Dennis (played wonderfully by Jim Broadbent), but does an excellent job of portraying her political career as well. One thing I found interesting is my art teacher from kindergarten to 8th grades name was Dennis Thatcher, so I found that to be pretty cool. I absolutely feel that this is Meryl Streep's best performance and feel she more than deserved her Golden Globe win. As much as I want to see Michelle Williams win the Oscar, Streep winning it would be more than fine with me. I really loved her portrayal and how they showed her rise the political ranks through guidance, but also her own ambitious desires. They show how she rose from the Secretary of Education to the Leader of the Conservative Party (also showing us poll numbers and the pie graphs on how votes are sorted out) and finally the longest serving Prime Minister in the 20th century. Thatcher is known for her hair and her strict conservative political ideologies such as free market economy. I have heard alot of people tell me I won't like this because they paint her in a bad light. To be honest, I feel the exact opposite. Yes, they show her battle with dementia and yes they show moments where she becomes angered at meetings towards the end of her run, but honestly it was well portrayed because Streep was on her A game. They also showed how she had a voice and she had to rise above all the chauvinist members of Parliament who weren't impressed to have a woman invade their turf. Through her own merits she was able to rise the ranks, because she found her voice. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and look forward to getting the DVD. I was completely engulfed in the story and really liked the way it was shot, showing Thatcher and some of the tough decisions she had to make during her 11and1/2 years as the Prime Minister as well as showing how she had an amazing memory for most of her life. I thought the last shot of the movie was great because a line she says when she was younger makes the last scene even better. Its tough to make these political biopics, but I feel this was very well done. There were some pretty good English actors in this as well. I am not sure of some of the names but I recognized Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lewis Prothero from V For Vendetta, and David Mycroft from the House of Cards series (actually from my favorite one in the series, To Play The King) which I actually viewed in a Politics and Film class with fellow movie geek blogger buddy Jacqui Cohen!!! Overall, I realize that some people haven't looked at this in a positive light, but I can't stress enough how much I loved this movie. I give this an easy 5/5 for me. I really enjoyed it!!!