Told by way of a retrospective, Meryl Streep is the elderly Baroness Thatcher who is struggling to get over the death of her husband Sir Denis (Jim Broadbent) and dealing with the onset of dementia that is distressing her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) and is causing her to forget yesterday but vividly recall the moments from her past that led to her domination of British politics for ten years. Streep does well mimicking the style and voice of the politician, but the back and forth style of the film's timelines robs it of much of it's potency. It is hard to be critical of the woman or her style when she is largely portrayed via the image of the shell that she had become towards the end of her life. You cannot help but feel a degree of pity for her and I suspect everyone watching - and her too - would not have wanted that. The condensed nature of the narrative does little justice to her career - it's controversial highs and lows; position on the global stage, even her downfall is rushed - and the depiction of her life here leaves us with little of substance with which to judge this most polarising of women. It is worth a watch to witness a consummate professional at work, but as a review of Margaret Thatcher or her political career it falls disappointingly short.
2023-07-23
