Movie: The Iron Lady
Margaret Thatcher was for me the British Prime Minister when I was still a child: I saw more of her in parody than in real footage, and so this biopic of her was a different experience for me than for the people in the cinema who were old enough to remember her as a source of headlines. The story is told using flashback, and so that lasting image of Thatcher is of an “old lady”, uncharacteristically looking back on her life and her legacy.
If you’ve tried to find out anything at all about this film, you’ll know that Streep’s performance is amazing. Jim Broadbent does a good job in this role, but it’s a little too much screen time for the story and Dennis’ part in it.
The main concept the film brings across is to pose a question. What does it mean to have a life that matters, and what must be given up to achieve that kind of life? It’s not a film that asks any spiritual questions, but when a person looks at their life in its entirety, the big question has to be “what next?”, doesn’t it?