THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Meryl Streep's performance in The Iron Lady is astonishing, writes Robbie Collin.
“One of the great problems of our age is that we’re governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas,” says Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. “Now, thoughts and ideas – that’s what interests me.” It’s a pivotal line in director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan’s absorbing, exhilarating biopic of the United Kingdom’s only female prime minister, but the film itself doesn’t agree. The Iron Lady does not pick over thoughts and ideas for an hour and 45 minutes: Lloyd and Morgan are fascinated by who their subject was and is, and rather less by what she stood, and continues to stand for. Personality politics might have been anathema to Margaret Thatcher MP, but this film is propelled by the sheer power of her presence. Read on and comment » | Robbie Collin | Thursday, January 05, 2012
