The Iron Lady Review

The Iron Lady Review

There is definitely something about Meryl Streep that makes her a powerful figure in the name of movie making. When you have her on the set and on the screen she just glows with raw talent and prowess that it takes a really good story and director to utilize all that talent in the right direction, otherwise it ends up as something that could have been good but ending up nowhere. That is exactly the case with The Iron Lady.

The Iron Lady is a by-the-book biopic of Lady Margaret Thatcher, a former British Prime Minister who led her people through three terms and spearheaded Britain against Argentina in a war over the Falkland Islands. In essence the views her people had on her governing were split in half; either she was taken as a firm but wise prime minister or she was viewed as a political monster that undermined the capabilities of her seat in government. That could have been an interesting story if the audience was given a little bit of both but in this case The Iron Lady is just as confused. It really doesn’t know where to go with the life and story of its character. It understands that there are different sides to the story, both in public and on a personal level, but the whole movie plays out more like an excerpt from an encyclopedia than an actual biopic. All you get here are known facts and data that you could have picked off from any book or web article but you aren’t getting a deeper look on the person’s story or any involving character development.

The movie is just there. Yes, there are some witty exchange of dialogue and for a few scenes the audience gets a glimpse of what made Lady Thatcher’s mind tick but none of those elements bring the plot forward for further develop. The good parts of the movie are individual scenes that weren’t utilized to open even better scenes or better story development. In short the whole film is a good looking, well acted collection of good scenes that could have stood alone but as a whole they do not work together to bring about a bigger picture and that is where this film fails. It decided to stay neutral but it didn’t know how.

Most of the problems of this film lie in the hands of the director, Phyllida Lloyd, who was also the director of the successful British musical-comedy Mamma Mia! Phyllida Lloyd handles the camera quite well and she definitely knows how to give tension and a little bit of depth on a movie relying on dialogue but the problem is that she didn’t exactly know what the movie should be about and she shares a lot of the blame with the screen play. With no clear direction on what the movie’s plot and intention should arc over, all she can do is direct the small pieces and hope some consistency lies between them when they are edited into one film. The director’s inability to seize control and actually direct the film instead of weaving through what was given is what hurt the film the most and her weakness contrasts a lot with the strength that was in Meryl Streep’s performance and character.

The film only hinted at the strength and weakness of the woman in subject. The film does connote that the Lady Thatcher had valued ideas over emotions and yet this unique take on tackling the complications and situations of her government and country are only mentioned in the film but never seen in action. Her ability to draw out respect is merely a given statement in the film but it is never applied onto the characters. The film could have benefited from extra scenes including some of the other characters to give the audience and outside glimpse of what they think of her but it avoids this to play safe. One never gets a solid impression on her rise to power; was she a feminist figure proving the strength of her sex, or was she a pauper-prince symbol, or was she a power-driven psycho maniac? None of these issues are tackled or addressed in the film. All you get are the facts. Whatever concept or image of the Lady Thatcher you may have had before watching the film, is pretty much all you’ll have when you walk out. This is too bad because a lot of the small, individual pieces and the performance of the leading lady definitely deserved more. This movie review grants The Iron Lady a 3 and a half out of 5.