The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady brings together the life and success story of Margaret Thatcher with Meryl Streep’s incredible acting talent. You may read numerous positive reviews on this film, as well as countless negative, but you will never come across an indifferent one. It is always better to see the miracle with your own eyes.

What you get is a story of a woman, unique and touching indeed. Margaret Thatcher achieved previously unseen heights in her political career, having become the first female prime minister in Europe. She might seem a person of a strong, rigid, ‘iron’ will, but her life was, as it often happens to outstanding individuals, full of challenges and losses, victory and defeat, both for her country and her own self. She witnessed severe protests and unemployment while in power, but she, however, remains one of the most unusual characters in the history of mankind. Her unshakable dignity, persistence of her opinion, pure strengths without visible weaknesses – yes, her core essence was brought back to life by Meryl Streep, who is not actually ‘playing the role’, but is physically transformed into another human being.

Phyllida Lloyd doesn’t really add much from her part as a director. The film itself is more a framework to Streep’s exceptional talent than a separate piece of art. The plot might look a bit unfinished, unpolished, but then again, isn’t it reflecting Thatcher’s fragile inner world? The personal tragedy of Margaret is obvious, coming out from the background, from some hidden shadow beside her well-known political career, to the front, where she is, first of all, a woman, a lady… and all the iron is replaced by solitude.