The Iron Lady

I finally got the chance to watch The Iron Lady...just finished actually so this is my fresh impression: average. It is not necessarily a bad thing: the industry needs average movies, people need average movies to watch every once and a while and so on. It may be a bad thing if we consider that probably expectations for this one were higher.

Do not misunderstand me: there are some outstanding elements in this work. One is of course Meryl Streep’s interpretation: it really is creepy how much she resembles Mrs. Tatcher, not only in her looks, but in the mimic and the voice and the fierce determination mixed to constant concern in her eyes. The looks of Meryl Streep are another outstanding element: make-up artists Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland won, in fact, an Oscar for their work here. Also, the direction, by Phyllida Lloyd (at her second big work, the first one being Mamma Mia!) has its moments: I liked especially the way to show the loneliness and isolation by portraying Streep in an empty room that was full moments before. Finally, I like that historical facts are told somehow impartially: it is evident the rightful intention of showing the undeniable strength of this woman, but I am not quite sure whether the people that did this movie liked the Iron Lady and her political choices or not!

Yet, there are elements that make this movie quite boring, for an average end result. I would mention two main ones, correlated somehow to each other. 

All the biographical movies are the same in structure, this one included: either the main characters remember their life or someone very close to them tells their story with nostalgia and admiration. Boring. Especially because I recently watched J. Edgar, which does exactly the same. Is it possible to tell a decades-spanning story about someone in a different way?

The second disappointed "boring" comes from another typical biographical film element: the struggle, the achievements, the entire life of great men (and women) are all ultimately interpreted as an attempt to fit in, to find one's place in the world, to show the detractors they were wrong. This is ok, it is only human, but can it be just that? Isn't it too simplistic to think that their strength just grew to hide their weaknesses and lack of self confidence? It may be one important determinant, but not everything. I personally find  it annoying when they explain everything with the giggling girls taunting the hero since adolescence. 

I am taking a stand here and launching an appeal: "Writers of the world, fresh bio movies up. Thank you, a bored viewer". 

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Writer: Abi Morgan (screenplay)
Stars: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent and Richard E. Grant