The Iron Lady, more like Dementia and Deterioration !Epic Fail Ahead!

Did I mention I hate her face?

Today, I made the mistake of going to my local theater and seeing The Iron Lady. Even though I am not a huge Meryl Streep fan, I do enjoy movies about politics. I loved Lions For Lambs, while a majority of my friends wanted to leave 20 minutes into the film. In this case, I was highly disappointed with The Iron Lady, but surprised by Meryl Streep's performance. Dare I say ... she was not quite as annoying as usual. I was also very impressed with the basically unknown Alexandra Roach, who played a very convincing young Margaret Thatcher.

Alexandra Roach was highly underrated in this film (in comparison to Meryl).

The Issues With This Film:

If you will remember anything from this movie, you will remember that Margaret Thatcher is crazy. That statement is true my friend, and it is a huge shame. As said by many, this film is OBSESSED with the deteriorating mental state of Margaret Thatcher. During the entire movie, she is seen walking around her London flat, looking like sh*t, drinking heavily, and constantly talking to her dead husband. From time to time, she has disorganized flashbacks of her younger self. These flashbacks make up about 45 percent of the film and are incredibly random at times. Furthermore, she is convinced that she is not going crazy for the majority of the film ... only solidifying her descent into madness.

One could say that this film  ignores what was important about Margaret Thatcher's career. Because of the obsession with her mental state, this film explores very few details of why Margaret Thatcher was the way she was and behaved the way she did. It also barely SKIMS over her political conflicts, which I find to be bizarre for a biopic. They briefly go into her childhood, in which she worked at her father's grocery store. You also see her watching her father's political speeches, but nothing is truly explained. They never showed a real turning point that molded her into who she is.

This movie is not educational. If you know nothing of Margaret Thatcher, don't expect to leave and feel like you learned something. The only thing you might learn is that she rose up against the sexism of that time and became a demented lunatic. However, because they briefly skim over her political decisions, you will not leave with a sound opinion of her, which I thought was the point of the entire movie.

This movie is confusing, and dare I say ... sexist.

For example, near the end of the film it shows her harshly reprimanding what I believe was one of her male cabinet members(?), for failing to spell a few words correctly. According to the movie, he is obviously "butt hurt" by this correction, and from there, everyone simply stops backing her. I guess it was because she was a "bitch." In return, she simply resigns. Which makes the viewer believe:

"So, she fought her entire life to be treated equally with men, only to resign when people started to think she was a royal bitch? REALLY?"

They never explained why she truly resigned or what led to her resignation. Which kind of made me feel like this movie was incredibly sexist. Maybe women are, in the end, truly not capable of leading. That is what I took from this movie, and that, my friends, is f&cked up. Furthermore, earlier in the movie, a young Margaret Thatcher receives a marriage proposal. She then goes into a speech about how she wants to be more than a housewife, stating, "I will not die cleaning a tea cup!"  Ironically, at the end of the film she is seen saying "goodbye" to the hallucination (or was it a ghost?) of her husband and yes ... cleaning a tea cup.

Only a handful of viewers are calling this movie sexist. I believe this is because the majority of the viewers are from a much older generation. Honestly, I think I was the only person under the age of 55 in the theater.  I personally found the movie to be sexist. However, I am not a hardcore feminist by any means, and would never dream of burning my $50 Wonderbra!

In conclusion, I thought this movie was directed and written in a very sloppy fashion. I believe it is very tasteless, and I feel for Margaret Thatcher. I would be pissed if someone depicted me that way, especially when I'm still living and able to view this film. As a person with no real opinion of Margaret Thatcher, I find myself more confused than before. The movie was terrible, and the only reason I think some people went to see it was because of Meryl Streep. On the other hand, the only reason I saw it was because I was at the wrong theater at the wrong time, and didn't feel like waiting 45 minutes for the new Underworld movie. As far as I am concerned, renting and re-watching Iron Man is a much better choice ...

Sources:
Meryl Streep Can’t Save the Surprisingly Sexist The Iron Lady from Incoherence
Movie Review Query