Movies

The Iron Lady could have easily have been a creaky, by-the-numbers political biopic recounting the career of Britain's first and only female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Thankfully, this excellent film opts for a more rewarding and less clear-cut examination of the junction between the public and private personas of the said "Iron Lady", played spectacularly by Meryl Streep.

We meet Baroness Thatcher (a convincingly aged Streep) in the present day, lonely in her London apartment and suffering from dementia. Haunted by memories of her beloved, flamboyant late husband Denis (Jim Broadbent), Margaret reflects on her past, from her early years trying to break the glass ceiling as a local politician during the 1950s (played in her youth by newcomer Alexandra Roach) to her reign as a right-wing conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd presents a strikingly intimate portrait of one of the most loved and hated political figures in recent history, not shying away from the divisiveness of the chosen subject. The impact of her stringent economic policies on the British populace is felt through raw footage from the 1980s, while her controversial escalation of the Falklands War is thoroughly explored.

But The Iron Lady pays more attention to the personal price paid by such a public figure, with the added layers of sexism and class enhancing the drama of a woman in power in a man's world.

This is a fascinating angle, but too much time is spent dwelling on Thatcher's elderly decline, a clunky conceit that could have been tightened to reiterate the power of the gripping flashbacks.

Last but not least, the film's strongest asset is the iron-clad, Oscar-worthy performance of the incomparable Streep. There's acting, and then there's Meryl Streep-ing. She gamely sinks her prosthetic teeth into her greatest performance yet, a commanding combination of her Devil Wears Prada authority and Julie and Julia boisterousness.

It's a spellbinding performance in a robust, absorbing and luckily not entirely humourless cinematic effort.