An ambitious failure! The opening scene of The Iron Lady is perfect, but the rest of the movie is uneven & fails to carry the subtle punch & potential of that scene. Of course, Streep becomes Thatcher (did she ever play Elizabeth I? That would be great). It alludes to historical events without conveying why that event is important. Instead of combining, it segments & segregates her role as a daughter, professional/politician, wife and mother, and fails to create a continuum from a raging pioneer to a struggling widow. Some of the blame should lie with Alexandra Roach, who played the young Margaret Thatcher. She played it too vulnerable, tentative & quiet. The film tried to show everyone through Thatcher’s eyes (men looming around or over her–relational dominance), but is also torn and wants to stare at her (montage of various blue outfits & sensible heeled shoes–which I thought worked as illustration of how she was alone as a woman). Felt like visual victimhood. A great supporting cast (Buffy’s Anthony Head!) that doesn’t ever become three dimensional, except perhaps Dennis, but not quite. When not an illusion, Dennis abruptly changes mood: “I want a career woman” to “you only think of yourself.” The film cheated by reverse engineering the central relationship–starting with them as an adorable illusion of an adorable, old couple rooted in their routine so we accept it as a given that they are together instead of gradually showing how they became a real, strong couple. Too abrupt & fails to show instead of tell–was Dennis as good a companion as she imagined seems to be the implied question. Paralleling her career & political struggles, i.e. not being like weak men, comes to a denouement in the final scene & worked, but it is another cheat–she hasn’t overcome dementia & we don’t know her interior life so I found myself constantly questioning whether or not the movie was accurately portraying her life as it is or relishing showing an extraordinarily strong, imposing woman as finally vulnerable. On the other hand, it does take as seriously the struggle of mental problems with global ones. Has any biographical film ever shown a male political leader so diminished? (King Lear, but we never see him strong.) Placating the audience with a false triumph is not very Thatcher. Were the filmmakers projecting a gender and aging agenda that Thatcher herself would reject as weak? I did like the repetition of bombing in her life & adds punch to scenes involving the Falkland War, which otherwise could have failed if not emotionally set up throughout the whole movie. After the first hour, the film was stronger, but feels like it was made with a highlighter instead of an even stroke of the pen. If it wasn’t about Thatcher & just someone, then a great portrayal about a strong person struggling with dementia, it would have been a great film, but since it is about Thatcher, it makes you feel like the flashbacks are questionable–unreliable narrator. All her big moments become questionable as an illusion.