The Iron Lady – Spoiler Alerts

I am just back from seeing The Iron Lady. I must say I did enjoy it. I was not sure if I would as you are probably aware I am no fan of Mrs T and will not grieve at her passing. (no pun intended) I found Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher very believable. She played her as a she was I am not sure if she played her as she is now as you don’t see her enough to comment on that.

Jim Broadbent is out of this world as Denis he plays a man who is very funny and loves his wife very much. The Film is not a step by step look at Mrs Thatcher from her a couple of events in her childhood the main one being her Father speaking at a public meeting to her downfall, instead it concentrates on “some of” the important parts of her life as seen in flashback by Mrs Thatcher while she talks with her dead husband Denis. There as a couple of points of interest in the film as regard what it portrays as present day. Firstly her “staff” and Family (well her daughter Carole played by Olivia Colman Mark is in South Africa and never appears) both think she is going senile they realize she is talking to Denis and still has all his cloths in the closets as if he were alive. Secondly when asked direct questions about seeing things and having hallucinations she says “no” she also tells Denis on a number of occasions that he is dead. So this does not appear to be a case of senile dementia. There as been some concern by her friends and some fellow Tory MPs from her time that this did not portray her correctly. Personally it did not come over as her being a sad old lady so much as someone who missed the long term love of her life her husband and the flashbacks were a way of remembering him.

As I said this goes through the important parts of her life (or at least some of them) it starts with her first attempt at being elected in 1950 in Dartford which was a safe Labour Seat. She didn’t win but she met Denis and they marry she is then chosen for Finchley in 1959 and gets elected the way this effects her children is touched on. The film gives the idea how Sexist the House of Commons was at that time. It imply s however that she was the only Female MP at the time there were in fact another 24 MPs elected that year 12 Conservative and 13 Labour. You see that Airey Neaves (played by Nicolas Farrell) takes her under his wing and then you see her as Education Secretary (no mention of Milk Snatcher) and there is then an argument within her family when she decides to stand against Ted Heath (Played by John Sessions).

Mrs Thatcher is seen being coached how to speak in a lower octave something she denied the whole time she was in office this was all orchestrated by Gordon Reece (played by Roger Allam) The Next Major event was portrayed with a bit of poetic licence as although the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) did blow up Airey Neaves she was not there at the time. There is coverage of the Miners Strikes, the Poll Tax riots the bombing of the Grand Hotel and her cabinet telling her the cuts were too deep (sound familiar) and you see the way she speaks to them she belittles Geoffrey Howe (Played by Anthony Head). Well this leads to his resignation and his speech in the house of Commons. This was the pivotal point in her downfall as after that Michael Heseltine (played by Richard E Grant) states he will stand against Mrs Thatcher.

When she does not win the first ballot out right the real knifes come out a number of Cabinet members are seen saying “of course you can count on my vote Margaret but I cant say about my colleagues”. Denis Tells her she will loose (this is another inaccuracy as it was Kenneth Clarke and Malcolm Rifkin who told her this).

Throughout the film as I mentioned Margaret is speaking to the dead Denis and her Housekeeper June (played by Susan Brown) tries to get her to get rid of the Clothes she still has belonging to him. The end sees Margaret emptying the closets herself packing a suitcase for Denis and waving him off into the light.

Overall its a fairly accurate portrayal of her years in power well from my recollection anyway. There is very little politics and more about her relationship with Denis which if the film is to be believed was a love affair. A understanding of the history of the time gives you a better understanding of the film. I would not recommend taking to children without ex-plaining a lot of the history to them first as my daughter found that knowing the history helped. I would recommend seeing it as its not a glorification of her but shows how she was out of touch with even her cabinet at times and that the way she had to act to get ahead was in its self the main thing that lead to her downfall.