Film Review | The Iron Lady

A one-woman show

In the role of former British Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, actor Meryl Streep cuts a formidable portrait in The Iron Lady, true to the real Thatcher her people loved, and elected for three consecutive terms. It is well known that she was also hated and indicted for her unapologetic championing of the free markets, privatization and ruthless suppression of Britain’s labour movements.

Streep sinks her teeth into the nitty-gritty of it. We meet Thatcher as an ageing woman, alone at her home. The prosthetics are perfect, the physicality and manner of speech that the actor adopts are marvellous. Few actors can make the task of physically mastering a role seem so effortless. She deserves all the awards—she got the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the Bafta for best actor in a female lead.

It is a performance that allows Streep to show all that she can do. The devices are on show, her willingness to embrace the devices and inhabit a character far removed in time is gloriously evident. The Iron Lady is the perfect bait for top acting awards. The film rests entirely on Streep, because the storytelling is not engaging. The writer is more interested in representation than creative interpretation.

In her old age, Margaret remembers her journey from a feisty young woman, a daughter of a grocer, to her days as a student leader, her love affair with Denis Thatcher, in whom she finds an encouraging partner who was happy to be in the background, and her rise to the highest post in a government populated by men. She is hallucinatory, seeing her husband by her side at all times long after his death, and is rueful about lost times with her family. The old chutzpah is not all lost, as is evident in a memorable scene during a medical examination when she is trying to convince her doctor that she is fine.

The film is replete with visual symbolism. Margaret’s blue suits, pearls and high heels stand out amid grey-clad men surrounding her at all times. The woman’s struggle is depicted through such symbols and rousing dialogues: “With all due respect Sir, I have done battle every single day of my life”; “One must be brave if one is to take the wheel”; “It used to be about trying to do something, now it’s about trying to be someone”.

The scenes of her arguing and winning over male colleagues are one-sided. All the men come across as idiots, except Margaret’s husband, played brilliantly by British actor Jim Broadbent. The opposing voices are shown as enraged men frothing at the mouth in parliament or as rioters on the street. So there’s more said in this film than really shown. The scenes where Margaret “does battle” are few.

The Iron Lady is overall not a complex portrait. Its monotone symbolism is tedious, made somewhat tolerable by Streep’s feisty acting. Even so, after watching Julie & Julia and The Iron Lady, I want to see Streep in a role that does not require her to adopt the physical trappings of a character—but one which does not require her to show off her ingenuous, undoubtedly effective tricks.

The Iron Lady released in theatres on Friday.

sanjukta.s@livemint.com