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The Iron Lady

THE IRON LADY directed by Phyllida Lloyd, written by Abi Morgan, with Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent and Olivia Colman. 105 minutes. An Alliance release. Opens Friday (January 13). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN


Phyllida Lloyd’s new film portrays former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a proto-feminist outsider fighting the male establishment, and steers clear of the union-busting, privatizing, deregulating policies that transformed the UK’s political landscape.

This is a jaw-dropping performance by Meryl Streep, who turns into both the formidable Thatcher in her prime and the elderly Thatcher suffering from dementia, whose attempt to go through her late husband, Denis’s (Jim Broadbent), personal effects triggers a wave of memories.

Lloyd, tracking Thatcher’s rise from grocer’s daughter to MP and then PM, demonstrates better visual chops than in her first feature, Mamma Mia! (damning with faint praise, perhaps). But instead of focusing on, say, Thatcher’s push to dismantle the social safety net, screenwriter Abi Morgan tells the story from inside Thatcher’s head and covers only those moments when she felt most embattled.

All this po-mo subjective stuff runs the risk of being misread by uninformed audiences who’ll see only near-wholesale celebration. The politics are a mess even Thatcher herself would be appalled. But Streep’s performance is genius.

Interview: Meryl Streep

Movie Features:

The real-life meaning of Thatcherism

Meryl Streep’s best moments

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