The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady

By Sweet Sugar

Rating: B

Synopsis: Pass on the theater and add to your NetFlix queue

“People don’t think anymore, they feel.”

— Lady Thatcher

I was hesitant at first when first asked to write this review by the Movies Films & Flix crew because I thought a review would bring down the “cool” factor of this site faster than English britches after a Muse concert. But hey, Meryl Streep is an Oscar frontrunner, and hopefully this review will add a notch in your movie belt of pretentiousness.

Lady Thatcher is a conservative rock star. She was a rigidly-principled and polarizing figure, so of course a movie about her will be equally as polarizing (55 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

Half of critics seem to like the script and half seem to hate it, but everyone loved Meryl Streep’s performance.  The performance was the driving force in the movie because the script was average.  It was really amazing how Streep slipped into Lady Thatcher’s skin and mannerisms. It’s also impressive how production team made this good of a movie in six weeks on a $13 million budget.

The writers took a different angle by depicting an elderly Thatcher suffering from dementia and reminiscing on her life through her conversations with her deceased husband, leading to a very broad, time-hopping look at her life. To put it in perspective, it was kind of like the Brits making a movie about Ronald Reagan with Alzheimer’s starring a spectacular Michael Caine. I wish they added more history and insight, but I can see why the movie was personal and feministic in nature instead of politically-charged to try and get a pass from left-leaning Hollywood and the mainstream media.

The Iron Lady struck a chord with me for two reasons. First, it is so completely relevant to what is going on with the necessary “austerity measures” in Europe and the uproar over the U.S. national debt. Second, her relationship with her quirky yet suave and impeccably well-dressed husband was really warm and interesting from the days they first met until their elderly days. It clearly displays the importance of friendship in marriage.

I say, dismiss the critics like Lady Thatcher would dismiss placaters and weak men. Watch it when it comes out on DVD; learn to dress better, and talk about it with a British accent while discussing the movie around the water cooler at work.