When I was between the ages of approximately five and seven, I idolised Mrs Thatcher. I’m not exactly sure why or how this happened. While my parents were not anti-Thatcher like everyone else’s seem to have been, I think it was mostly to do with my love of Spitting Image (she was the main character back then, you see). It certainly wasn’t based on a thorough examination of her policies – she was strong and had a distinctive voice and hair do. And I thought it was great that a woman was in charge.
Well, it seems that the makers of The Iron Lady share my seven-year-old’s view of Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep). Wasn’t she awesome? She didn’t give in, did she? She always stuck to her guns, whatever anybody said. And she was a woman living in a man’s world.
It’s a pity that the absolutely amazing performance by Streep has been somewhat wasted – this could have been the definitive Thatcher film, but it only scrapes the surface.
The film focuses mainly on Thatcher now, suffering from dementia. She remembers scenes from her past – working in her dad’s shop, becoming an MP, becoming PM – and talks to her dead husband (Jim Broadbent).
We see how her difficult early years in charge of the country (with soaring unemployment, riots and even an attempt on her life by the IRA) are all forgotten when she sticks to her guns and successfully takes back the Falklands from the Argentineans. After that, the 80s was all yuppies drinking Bollinger until she was rudely ousted by her own party in 1990.
Except, of course, that the Brighton Hotel bombing happened in 1984, two years after the Falklands War.
Trying to make a linear narrative out of a period in office (any Prime Minister’s period in office) can only result in gross oversimplification or confusion as we have here. I suppose you could say that the film sees events through her eyes, but as well as glossing over a lot of the bad stuff, the film completely misses out her success in the Cold War. Ronald Reagan isn’t even in it! Surely Maggie would think about Ronnie?
If the film isn’t good history, it is entertaining to a degree. Though a bit long, the performances make it worth seeing. Streep really transforms into Mrs Thatcher, so much so that it is slightly disturbing. The voice is absolutely perfect with no vowel out of place (something I have never heard from an American doing an English accent – it’s always a clanging vowel which gives them away). Broadbent plays Dennis extremely cuddly-y, Alexandra Roach is a wonderfully focused young Maggie, and Olivia Colman is a scream as Carol Thatcher.
The Iron Lady is a quite depressing look at ageing and a quite fun look at a very determined woman. But I think most people would feel there was more to say about Maggie than that she was determined and got old.
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