Nadine Williams

Meryl is magnificent as Margaret

There are a few good reasons to brace oneself for the reality of old age by viewing The Iron Lady, about the life of Margaret Thatcher, one of the greatest women leaders of the 20^th century.

Firstly, the film is a toast to feminism as the headline from The Spectator in London says “Truth is, Thatcher led feminists out from behind the kitchen sink.’

It tells the true story of the metamorphosis of Margaret from poor grocer’s daughter to ultimate power as Prime Minister of Great Britain, but then there is the dramatic decline and disturbing images of Thatcher today, a frail, aged lonely woman in the first stages of dementia. Director Phyllida Lloyd leaves a lingering second message – that power is fleeting and that there is a high price to pay for political fame.

Her awesome political achievement is snapped in the photo session at the head of a huge all-male cabinet when elected Prime Minister.  In a warts and all portrayal, Lloyd does not flinch from showing Thatcher’s ruthless  11-year rule, and its social consequences for Britain, before her downfall at the hands of colleagues.

Hollywood actress, Meryl Streep is magnificent in her astute portrayal of Thatcher, particularly her ability to switch from the all-powerful political figure to the pathetic, frail aged Margaret in flashbacks.  Streep captures Thatcher’s ambition and ruthlessness to fix up the woes of a socialist Britain with brutal public policy and the social rebellion of the miners’ strike, the poll tax riots and the IRA bombings.  Thatcher’s personal life was pretty much one-dimensional and it is obvious that her family bore the brunt of her ambition, particularly long-suffering husband Denis, ably portrayed by Jim  Broadbent.

However, an actor can only work with the script provided in this case by Abi Morgan and Bruce Anderson in The  Spectator writes that the film’s depiction of the complex character of Denis Thatcher as a light-weight nincompoop was “the real weakness’’. Instead,  he  was “the most important figure in the real supporting cast’’, the only one who stood by her in the end.

Anderson criticises how the film depicted the young Denis  (played by Harry Lloyd) and young Margaret (played by Alexandra Roach) negotiating a political pre-nup as “inaccurate and unconvincing’’. And he writes his own scenario given Denis’s “upper-middle-class, British Club’’ background  and  subservient role of women in the 1950s.

“When I married the little woman, I knew she’d been interested in politics, but didn’t take that seriously. She’d never had any money and I’d sort that out. She could have a dressmaker and a decent hairdresser; sort of thing girls enjoy,’’ he writes.

“I’d put her in the club, so there’d be sprogs to bring up. In the long fullness, if she wanted to be chairman of the local Tory advisory women’s whatnot, no harm in that. But if someone had said to me: “Thatcher, forget local female thingummy – that little woman of yours is going to be prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’’, I might have scratched the fixture. I’m glad I didn’t.’’

Whatever.  History has it that Margaret married a brilliant young barrister who stood by her on her climb to the top and was there when she tumbled down again.  It’s an inspiring film for women of all ages and confronting in Streep’s portrayal of a frail, aged Thatcher.  For once, we are told the whole story and the reality of the last stages of life have not been edited out.

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