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The Iron Lady - Movie Review
Grade: B+
Underneath the surface of the disorganized direction of Mamma Mia director Phyllida LLoyd, The Iron Lady is a riveting film that tells a superb tale of femininity and universal independence. Meryl Streep’s portrayal as Britain’s controversial leader is emotionally adept and so masterfully complex that it conveys Margaret Thatcher as an uncompromising force while giving her a sense of intentional pathos. Even though plagued with a lack of focus, The Iron Lady possesses easily the best performance of the year that unequivocally overshadows the insufficient directing and writing.
Rather than telling Margaret Thatcher’s riveting biopic in a conventional sequential manner, Lloyd’s film begins with the former Prime Minister’s mind detioriating from what seems to be Alzheimer’s or dementia. Plagued with hallucinations of her late husband, Hatcher’s state of mind is uneasy as she lives in the shadows of her former self through flashbacks. The film then vacillates between Thatcher’s current days to moments from her extensive career as the British Prime minister. From her controversial decisions revolving domestic policy, to her leadership in midst of the Cold War - The film indubitably displays her significance to Britain’s history. But similar to the trend in this year’s batch of biopics (My Week With Marilyn, Eastwood’s J.Edgar), The Iron Lady ultimately lacks the focus to fully encapsulate the subject’s career. It spends far much too time focusing on the seniority of Thatcher. Although flawlessly Streep switches personas between the fragile senior to the fierce leader, the writing does not allow the audience to fully grasp neither her rise to leadership, nor her full career. This results from the fact the fact that her biography is dealt with incoherent flashbacks; the film is an incomplete puzzle to an otherwise great film.
Set aside the writing and direction, Meryl Streep gives a tour de force 
performances that the film rightfully sets all of its strength on. Streep simply put, takes an average film and makes it extraordinary. She gives Thatcher complexity that she possessed, displaying subtlety, every inch of her personality. From her ethereal eccentricities to her oxymoronic authoritarian mother-like behavior, even without great writing, her performance is able to fully show the independent woman Thatcher displayed as a figure. As mentioned, her ability to change emotional personas - from her superficial fierceness to a fragile humanity - shows us how human she was, ultimately giving the audience a call to action, to rise from the ordinary. Streep truly gives the audience an inspiring character, one that displays an individualistic life to the fullest.
Overall, The Iron Lady - similar to The Weinstein Company other entry (My Week With Marilyn) - is a film that could have been truly remarkable. But because of its unfocused writing and direction, The Iron Lady solely offers an amazing performance from Streep who is given the burden to carry this movie. While she succeeds to a massive extent in making it a commendable biopic, the splotchy results are unfortunately, rather noticeable. Grade: B+
