The Iron Lady - Anyone Seen it?
Discussion
I went to see it last night.
The back story about the dementia is not really needed, as Streep's performance (as well as that of the young girl who plays the younger Ms Roberts)is enough to carry the whole film.
Some excellent supporting cast (Jim Broadbent was brilliant as ever, and it took me a while to twig who was playing Carole Thatcher), and there are some surprising cameos as members of the Tory and Labour front benches. Those who are old enough to remember what happened to Airey Neave can watch everyone else in the cinema jump twenty feet in the air.
The whole desparation of the 'Winter of Discontent' was very well portrayed, and those scenes alone make the film compulsory viewing for the under forties who stil think Union-led Socialism has a part to play.
I did really enjoy it, but the last line of dialogue between DT and MT was so utterly out of character for DT as to spoil it a bit.
(Whatever you do, when you see Meryl's portrayal of Baroness Thatcher as a frail old lady, on no account imagine Catherine Tate's 'Nan')
The back story about the dementia is not really needed, as Streep's performance (as well as that of the young girl who plays the younger Ms Roberts)is enough to carry the whole film.
Some excellent supporting cast (Jim Broadbent was brilliant as ever, and it took me a while to twig who was playing Carole Thatcher), and there are some surprising cameos as members of the Tory and Labour front benches. Those who are old enough to remember what happened to Airey Neave can watch everyone else in the cinema jump twenty feet in the air.
The whole desparation of the 'Winter of Discontent' was very well portrayed, and those scenes alone make the film compulsory viewing for the under forties who stil think Union-led Socialism has a part to play.
I did really enjoy it, but the last line of dialogue between DT and MT was so utterly out of character for DT as to spoil it a bit.
(Whatever you do, when you see Meryl's portrayal of Baroness Thatcher as a frail old lady, on no account imagine Catherine Tate's 'Nan')
I went to see it last night.
Meryl Streep was fantastic as was Olivia Colman. Jim Broadbent was great as you would expect. Overall the acting was superb.
Unfortunately the film is completely let down by it's tasteless obsession with Thatcher's apparent dementia and that dominated the whole picture. The movie basically consists of a series of flashbacks from "today" to points in the past. As a result the history of Margaret Thatcher is compressed into less than an hour whilst the other half of the film has an apparently batty current Thatcher talking to a dead Denis. Maybe that's the point, the director wanted to show the story of Margaret and Denis and wanted to show it continuing after his death. As a consequence her failed bid to win Dartford in the 50's gets far greater coverage than the '79 election. That's fine, but it's not the movie I expected or wanted to see.
Although we see Airey Neave and his assasination at the hands of the INLA we see nothing of the very clever campaign that he orchestrated for her leadership. One minute she's thinking about running, the next she's leader. We see the Falklands war but that story is woven around the sinking of the Belgrano. We hear a little about the poll tax but hardly anything at all about Eurpoe, the reason for her eventual downfall. Her relationship with Reagan and with Gorbachev is barely touched on and apart from Geoffrey Howe the architects of her downfall are absent (Heseltine is there but superficially and not even mentioned by name).
There is an opening for a really great bio pic about Britain's greatest pre war PM but this was not it which is a shame given the excellent cast. Abi Morgan wrote The Hour which I thought was excellent so I was doubly disappointed with this.
Meryl Streep was fantastic as was Olivia Colman. Jim Broadbent was great as you would expect. Overall the acting was superb.
Unfortunately the film is completely let down by it's tasteless obsession with Thatcher's apparent dementia and that dominated the whole picture. The movie basically consists of a series of flashbacks from "today" to points in the past. As a result the history of Margaret Thatcher is compressed into less than an hour whilst the other half of the film has an apparently batty current Thatcher talking to a dead Denis. Maybe that's the point, the director wanted to show the story of Margaret and Denis and wanted to show it continuing after his death. As a consequence her failed bid to win Dartford in the 50's gets far greater coverage than the '79 election. That's fine, but it's not the movie I expected or wanted to see.
Although we see Airey Neave and his assasination at the hands of the INLA we see nothing of the very clever campaign that he orchestrated for her leadership. One minute she's thinking about running, the next she's leader. We see the Falklands war but that story is woven around the sinking of the Belgrano. We hear a little about the poll tax but hardly anything at all about Eurpoe, the reason for her eventual downfall. Her relationship with Reagan and with Gorbachev is barely touched on and apart from Geoffrey Howe the architects of her downfall are absent (Heseltine is there but superficially and not even mentioned by name).
There is an opening for a really great bio pic about Britain's greatest pre war PM but this was not it which is a shame given the excellent cast. Abi Morgan wrote The Hour which I thought was excellent so I was doubly disappointed with this.
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