The Iron Lady

Actors:  Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloyd, Iain Glen
Rating:  7 out of 10, a Netflix rental that took a very close look at one of the iconic figures of the later 1970s and 1980s, Margaret Thatcher.  She was Britain’s Ronald Reagan and accomplished a lot of the same things for which she was pilloried by the left leaning film industry.  This is a much more subtle look at her historic accomplishments and Streep totally owns this role – is there anything she cannot do?  The flashback technique was well done for the first half of the movie but wore me down in the second half.  This seemed to be a very honest appraisal of her battles against the rigid class structure of British society that is so prevalent but rarely talked about.  The supporting cast (many of them refugees from the Game of Thrones series) was fantastic, especially Broadbent as the often maligned but solid Dennis Thatcher.  I especially liked the scenes showing her origins and her fight up the ladder.  In the end I felt the film fell a little short because it couldn’t decide what it wanted to do – attack her, lionize her, or show the price she paid with her climb.  The best part of the movie were some of her quotes which rang true and could serve as a great indictment of today’s political arena which seems more about form than substance.
MVP:  Streep, the greatest actress of her generation, convincingly portraying Lady Thatcher