Director: Phyllida Lloyd
**
I adore Meryl Streep... she is always, always spot on in all the films I've seen of hers (and I have seen many). In this one, she does not fail. Her portrayal of The Iron Lady is impeccable. The power she commanded on the screen, the moments of vulnerability, her emotions regardless of her loyalty to ideas... they are all there in the most capable hands of Streep.
The younger Thatcher, played by Alexandra Roach, is just as adept... she matches Streep's handle and gives a poignant, rich, and powerful portrayal of her character.
Acting brilliance aside, the film is a little... unsure of itself. It seems to focus on the relationship between Thatcher and her deceased husband, Denis, and the dementia surrounding her later years. But the dementia is also used as a tool to foray into her past with flashbacks and old reels, and of course talking to a physically absent Denis.
But it doesn't help form any solid opinion on Thatcher's politics one way or another. We get splotches, rather well lighted and spectacularly angled ones, of visuals confirming the incidents we already know from history. There is nothing new to be gained, no side pushed forward, no real argument, so to speak, except maybe that hey, look! Margaret Thatcher was HUMAN, too!
In the end, it was mostly an affirmation of Streep's magnificence and talent, something I have no problem watching, but I could not help but wish for more. There was SO much potential here. It seemed like a soft prelude, or epilogue of a much vaster story needed to be told.
**
Rate: 5/10
