Waste of time

Powerful

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

One spent so much time detesting Margaret Thatcher's policies and its consequences that one forgets she was a human being. Silly isn't it? Yes, but true. Now Meryl Streep, with all her powers, reminds us. Mrs Thatcher was a real person, a real woman and no matter how much we disagree with her, we cannot dismiss her. Meryl Streep makes sure of that. Her performance is an extraordinary piece of art and I have the feeling that it will grow in meaning and scope as time goes on. The humanity of the actress at the service of a political icon that thought that it didn't matter what people felt but what they thought as if the two were mutually exclusive. Thank you Meryl Streep, you've done something that my grandchilden's grandchildren will benefit from.

There's little room for argument that Meryl Streep deserved the Best Actress for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, but I couldn't help thinking that the movie itself was a bit of a hit piece on the conservative British Prime Minister. Instead of examining Thatcher's tenure as PM in detail, the story had more to do with her slide into dementia following the death of husband Denis (Jim Broadbent). If that was to be the focus of the movie, why call it "The Iron Lady"? The real Iron Lady dealt with the United Kingdom's fiscal irresponsibility and stood firm against colleagues and opponents alike during the Falklands crisis. She brought Britain's role in the world back to some semblance of authority while the rest of Europe preferred to (and still does) surrender sovereignty to a monolithic entity with little regard for the common man who votes their politicians into power. Thatcher's commitment to self reliance, independence and hard work is generally alluded to but never given the kind of recognition that would inspire a viewer to follow in her footsteps. Regarding the film makers' choice of Streep in the title role is akin to selecting Jane Fonda for the role of Nancy Reagan in Lee Daniels' "The Butler", that is to say, something of a poke in the eye toward Conservatives, considering Streep's own political views. What was kind of ironic in retrospect was something Lady Thatcher stated while running for the position of Prime Minister, as it relates to the recent election of our own current President. She said "It's time to put the 'Great' back into Great Britain". It sounded like something old that's become new again.

"Thatcher: The Frail Years" seems both exploitative, and undeservedly sentimental...It's not that it doesn't cover the bad stuff - but the fact that it takes the form of an elderly lady experiencing a long dark night of the soul affords her a distance from her most famous battles that is entirely unwarranted.She suffered... and maybe what goes around comes around - but other people are still suffering from the effects of her policies, and they don't all get a movie of their own.It's all a bit shallow, and smacks of (very fine) actors playing dress- up, instead of the immersive experience it could and SHOULD have been.

While I cannot fault at all the performance given by Meryl Streep as Thatcher, this film is not the tribute that the great lady (whatever your political view) deserved.It's ploddy, it's weakly scripted in places, and I was disappointed it took the direction of showing Thatcher as being fail and looking back, which is an overused device.Much like Helen Mirren in 'The Queen' it is Streep's performance that carried the film from start to finish, though Jim Broadbent does well as her husband.A decent film that could and should've been better.