The Iron Lady

This was the first film that I watched where I wasn't bugged that they made an actor look older than they were. Meryl Streep played a very convincing Margaret Thatcher over a wide range of ages--say 50 to 80. And the makeup and costume made her look actually old and not just strange.

I was surprised that the film makers made and released a film dealing with Margaret Thatcher's battle with dementia while she is alive. I don't know that this shows loads of tact. Given her fascinating and important life, I was initially surprised that the film's unifying frame was her struggle with dementia. However, you need a focus in a biopic, and the film shows Thatcher as an iron lady both in her politics and in her private life, even when she is elderly and dealing with her grief over her husband's death.

The frame wasn't perfect: It wasn't always clear why the film and her mind were flashing back to the times that they were. It was persuasive that watching contemporary bombings on television inspired Thatcher to remember her girlhood experience of World War II bombings and her hotel IRA bombing. It was persuasive that the death of her husband pushed her to remember her romance and early married life. But why was she remembering the Falkland war? Okay, so admittedly, I closed my eyes for several seconds toward the end of the film, so maybe I missed some connection there. I'm not exactly sure, too, why she was remembering being forced out of office. Perhaps remembering her grace during old adversities was helping Thatcher summon up strength to face the adversity of her husband's death?