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Streep Has It In The Bag...Probably

I have to leave for two screenings in 30 minutes for I'm just going to paste what I wrote to some journalist friends a little while ago about The Iron Lady, which I feel is an acceptably okay and sometimes better-than-okay biopic with a curious emphasis on the destination rather than the journey. Here it is:

"Am I wrong or is at least 45% of The Iron Lady about octagenerian Maggie (superbly played by Streep and assisted by a first-rate makeup job -- much better than Leo's old-age makeup in J. Edgar)), 45% about Maggie in her political prime (Streep again, guns blazing) and 10% about very young Maggie (Alexandra Roach) and young Denis Thatcher (Harry Lloyd)?

"I didn't clock it but I was almost amazed that so much of the film is about the ravages of age and coping with senility and delusion. I mean, the film keeps going back to withered old Maggie as she probably is right now, over and over and over. I think this was thrown in as (a) a sympathy ploy to get the audience on Maggie's side and (b) to hand Meryl a juicy acting opportunity for Meryl to play both a proud stubborn woman suffering the inevitable decline along with her middle-aged Maggie standing up to British male chauvinism, and in so doing cinch up that Best Actress Oscar.

"I honestly think that Viola Davis's chances are lower now. I think Glenn Close's nomination (assuming it happens) is going to be the tribute she's looking for, and that's all. It's Streep vs. Williams, as far as I can foresee. Am I wrong?

"Apart from Streep's impersonation of Lady Thatcher being absolutely delicious (but then you knew that) and the film applying a kind of suppressive gloss on Thatcher's generally cruel, heartless policies and a cynical ploy (I believe) to distract the nation from domestic issues and ensure her reelection by going to war against Argentina, I actually thought the film on its own terms was somewhere between half-decent and pretty good....if a bit curious. At the very least it's far from the boilerplate biopic I expected, and I rather enjoyed the boldness of that.

"I must say I was surprised and almost shocked by the emphasis on the old, withered, hallucinating Thatcher, coping with the ravages of old age, veering in and out of senility and lucidity, etc. It's odd that so much screen time to given to this portion of her life as there's really nowhere to go with it (except, I suppose, into the issue of Maggie trying to eradicate her hallucinations of last husband Dennis(Jiom Broadbent), but that was the choice.

"The Maggie-in-her-prime-as-Prime-Minister stuff is good enough. It's fine, I mean. Assured, comprehensive, disciplined, well-shaped and nicely paced. But it also feels a teeny bit rote and rushed at times.

"All in all it's a rather lamenting and bittersweet drama about life slipping away, drop by drop, at the end of the road, and also, I have to say, a stirring feminist piece and an effective delivery of conservative propaganda. If you have any backbone and toughness in you, if you've trusted and relied upon yourself to get out there and shape your life into something, and if you feel anything for the plight of women being marginalized and patronized by male chauvinist pigs, then the movie is somewhat moving. It just is. I know there are a lot of lefties out there who will hate it because it doesn't condemn Thatcher sharply enough.

But the bottom line is that Streep is so good she made he chuckle with pleasure from time to time. You're saying to yourself over and over, 'Oh, God...this is so good, so amazing.'

"The octagenarian Maggie stuff, as noted, has been emphasized, I believe, to create a sense of sympathy for the character, as her mind and senses are clearly going bit by bit and without this tragic falling-apartat-the-end she'd be a cold, flinty harridan. If the movie was all about Maggie in her prime, the character would be admired for her brass balls but wouldn't be very likable, and might be seen as the out-and-out monster that her detractors call her, and the movie wouldn't, in all likelihood, do as well as the box-office.

Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) is quite believable as Thatcher's daughter Carol (I barely recognized her due to a wig and prosthetics) and the young Margaret actress (Ms. Roach) is also quite impressive. I'm not entirely sure about Jim Broadbent's Denis. His goofy, spectacle-enlarged eyes made him look like the guy who spoofed him at the end of For Your Eyes Only ('82).