adonis98-743-186503 An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene. Without a doubt the best part of 'The Iron Lady' is easily Meryl Streep's amazing and terrific perfomance but unfortunately? Besides that? There isn't anything much to it except her role and her devotion to the film plus the make up was insane but the film and the rest of the casting? Was pretty damn forgettable and below average.

grandmabrat Sometimes a movie should be about the person, not the history. That is what a lot of people are missing. This is a unique chance to make a movie about someone well known who has dementia and how it might manifest itself in them. We saw Margaret as a politician, but not as a person who had trials of her own. I disliked her politics and really didn't want her policies lauded and praised, but it was interesting to see the woman herself.

Howlin Wolf "Thatcher: The Frail Years" seems both exploitative, and undeservedly sentimental...It's not that it doesn't cover the bad stuff - but the fact that it takes the form of an elderly lady experiencing a long dark night of the soul affords her a distance from her most famous battles that is entirely unwarranted.She suffered... and maybe what goes around comes around - but other people are still suffering from the effects of her policies, and they don't all get a movie of their own.It's all a bit shallow, and smacks of (very fine) actors playing dress- up, instead of the immersive experience it could and SHOULD have been.

TheLittleSongbird Margaret Thatcher was a fascinating if controversial woman, who has garnered strong opinions on either side. 'The Iron Lady' also boasted quite a cast, with the likes of Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent, what could go wrong? The answer is, a lot did. 'The Iron Lady' is not complete dreck, but it could have been much, much better and doesn't do justice to Thatcher at all. The best thing about it is the acting, with the star of the film undoubtedly being the miraculous central performance of Meryl Streep as Thatcher. This is not a caricature or an impersonation, this performance feels genuine and real, showing that Streep did her homework researching Thatcher and her mannerisms.Jim Broadbent brings heart and warmth to the ghostly Dennis, in lesser hands this could have been a gimmick but Streep and Broadbent's chemistry is quite heartfelt and really tries to bring believability to scenes not deserving of that effort. Alexandra Roach is also solid as is an unrecognisable Olivia Coleman. Other than the acting, the make-up is extremely good with the actors very believably made up, the locations and costumes are suitably evocative and there is the odd intriguing scene that are too far and between.It is such a shame that the rest of 'The Iron Lady' falls flat. The supporting/secondary roles consist of spot and recognise the actor but the roles are too sketchily developed and under-utilised to make a proper impression. Phyllida Lloyd's talents as a theatre director don't translate here, here her direction is elephantine and the film is often haphazardly filmed and chaotically edited, especially the flashbacks. Thomas Newman's score is not among his best work, it's not awful certainly but it's more dreary than hypnotic and too derivative of other and better scores of his. The use of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto is moving though.Narratively, the story is unfocused and chaotic. There is too much focus on the older Thatcher suffering from dementia, and the scenes which dominate the film are incredibly dull and repetitive, there was little interesting about them, they seemed to exploit this awful condition with little sympathy for it rather than make Thatcher interesting and says little about her as a person and it was very difficult to not tire of the film early on. Much more interesting events, especially what Thatcher was famous for and conflicts of the time, are either mentioned but glossed over, introduced but quickly given short shrift or omitted entirely. In the end, hardly anything is learnt about Thatcher as a person or what made her famous or important and we don't really care at the end of the day.Similarly, the script is also very sketchy and stilted with too much focus on the wrong things and more interesting elements severely underdeveloped or out of sight. It also seemed too careful not to offend, while it can be appreciated that the film didn't want to make Thatcher an angel or a villain or be one-sided it just felt like things were played too safe and like the writer Abi Morgan couldn't decide what her opinion on Thatcher was. She was a controversial figure certainly, but there was room for a complex characterisation and while Streep's performance is without complaint and that didn't really come.Overall, a pretty weak film saved by the acting, Streep is the star here and issues about her winning the Oscar are none. 4/10 Bethany Cox