I think it's fair to say that we as a people (I don't know if this is a uniquely American phenomenon or not, but I don't think so) tend to take for granted people that do their job well all the time. We just assume they will always be the best at what their particular craft or skill, and we belittle or undervalue them if they slip even a little, even though they are doing their work infinitely better than we ever could. Let's look at one Meryl Streep, who simply does not possess the ability to do anything but great work, even in the most trite, least interesting of her works. Speaking of which, Streep has re-teamed with her MAMMA MIA! director Phyllida Lloyd to make a far more substantial but still inconsistent work, THE IRON LADY, a look at the events that shaped the groundbreaking career of Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of Great Britain and the first woman ever elected as head of a Western government.
THE IRON LADY covers 40 exceedingly interesting years in Thatcher's life, including and perhaps most disturbingly, the more recent years where dementia began setting in—sadly a place she still inhabits today. We see Thatcher as a young girl being taught the value of hard work and fending for yourself rather than relying on others to lend a hand, a philosophy she carried with her into her policies that made her no friends among the middle and lower classes in Britain. The film also does an admirable job of track the journey Thatcher took, while simply refusing to let the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated profession limit her in any way.
If anything, the film seems to handle her more controversial policies with soft, white gloves, not wanting to dirty the reputation of a sick old lady. If anything, Lloyd and Streep seem to really play it safe when we see Thatcher in her post-prime minister days, puttering around her home talking to her long-dead husband (Jim Broadbent). The film doesn't feel quite like a glossed-over bit of history, but it tries so hard to be even-handed that it largely ignores the great deal of hatred that was aimed at her for her entire term.
All of that being said, at the heart of THE IRON LADY is an extraordinary performance by Streep. This is no caricature of Thatcher; if this were meant to be a satirical take on Thatcher's life, I doubt Streep would have wanted anything to do with it. Streep plays her subject like there is something of value in her character and not like the villain she was often portrayed as, and that's exactly how she should play it. There isn't an actor worth their salt who doesn't say that a villain doesn't think they're a villain, so they should be played as such. Still, I would have liked to have heard Thatcher answer some of her well-informed critics, such as, I don't know, the entire nation of Ireland or all poor people or the citizens of the Falkland Islands. There are quite a few from which to choose.
There are moments in THE IRON LADY where it is possible to simply kick back and watch a great actor do her craft like no other—the voice, the body language, the facial expressions, and that glint in her eye whenever she is defying expectations or overcoming adversity. I don't know enough about British history to know if, as the film claims, many of her most brutal economic policies actually did pay off in the long run, but that seems like too important a point to simple skim over the way this film does. Much like the woman herself, the flaws in THE IRON LADY are great and numerous, but there's no denying there's something there at times, especially in scene between the elderly Thatcher and her grown daughter who comes to check on her regularly. Now there's a movie I'd like to see: MY MOM THE PRIME MINISTER.
