A biography should never make its subject more confusing. Enigmatic, perhaps, but it should also remain clear on what it wants to say about someone and, more importantly, how it wants to say it. With their take on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, writer Abi Morgan and director Phyllida Lloyd have decided to jumble the already muddled mythos revolving around England's first female leader. While true to many of the actual events that shaped her reign, the approach is awkward and loaded with assumptions both cruel and cartoonish.
When we first meet Mrs. Thatcher (an excellent Meryl Streep), she is hallucinating. Her husband Denis (Jim Broadbent) has been dead for many years. Unable to part with his personal belongings, she begins envisioning regular visits from the genial man. In the meantime, the British government is planning to honor Thatcher with a portrait at 10 Downing Street, and as staff and family prepare for the day, the ex-leader thinks back on her early life (she's played in these early scenes by Alexandra Roach) as the daughter of a grocer (Iain Glen), her first stabs at local politics, her ascension to a position of prominence, and later, her decision to defend the far off Falkland Islands. As her dementia grows, so does her detachment to the past. While her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) is concerned, the woman herself seems decidedly nonplused.
For Streep alone, The Iron Lady is a success. In another classic chameleon-like turn, the quintessential awards season actress gives yet another quintessential awards season turn. A careful combination of superb craft and showing off, it's the kind of role the 62 year old can achieve without really trying. With a voice that never devolves into lampoon and a mannerism befitting an ex-Prime Minster, Streep's Thatcher is both regal and crazy as a loon. UK critics and close family members have been up in arms over the Alzheimer's/senility angle, but it definitely adds a level of intrigue that would otherwise be lost. Similarly, by placing Denis is a more Greek Chorus style position, it avoids the whole "long suffering spouse" approach.But then Lloyd again proves herself to be one of the worst working directors in all of modern movies. As with Mamma Mia! (How do you ruin ABBA? She found a way!), this is one filmmaker who doesn't understand that what might work on stage never comes across the same on screen. Lloyd has enjoyed a legitimate reputation as a theatrical visionary, but she just doesn't "get" film. There are times when The Iron Lady feels like a cheap knock-off, a haphazard attempt at the traditional bio-pic. Then there are the scenes in which a summarily dismissed Denis 'disappears' into the radiant light of the afterlife. During a tense showdown within the Cabinet, editing and shot selection undermine any attempt at drama or tension, and throughout, Lloyd constricts her scope, reducing world events to minor personal tiffs.
Because of the unusual approach, because Thatcher is portrayed as both ambitious and off her rocker, The Iron Lady aggravates. Granted, we don't want some whitewashed version of the truth, but to impose a gimmick onto such a noted person of power comes across as petty and resentful. Indeed, many believe that Morgan and Lloyd have an obvious agenda against the former Conservative Party head -- and it's hard not to disagree. In Ms. Streep's work, we can see all the possibilities and the complexities that make up Margaret Thatcher. It's too bad that the rest of The Iron Lady is so poorly guided. What could have been very good comes across as merely bewildering.
