The Lady Is Not For Watching.

'The Iron Lady'

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher seemed a very unlikely thing. A big role indeed, to be one of the most controversial figures of all time, also the first Female British Prime Minster ever. From the get go, the media attention of this has been high profile, with the teaser picture of Streep as Thatcher, seeming to have everyone gasp and go wow, that's not Streep! It's directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who worked with Meryl Streep before on that dreadful, million pound churning machine 'Mamma Mia!'. Unfortunately the result of this one is, it isn't very good.

Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep) is an elderly lady, who's short term memory is fading, but can remember everything from her years at the helm at 10 Downing Street . She reminisces on her time, with flashbacks, of her hardships of being Prime Minster, from her childhood days and right up until she lost support of her own Cabernet of Minsters. It also includes a fair bit about her private family life, with her husband Dennis (Jim Broadbent), who is basically her rock, valiantly trying to steady her in his calming way.

The biggest problem I find with this is, that it focuses on Thatcher in the current day far too much, which for a retrospect, you would prefer to see much more of the important events like the Miners strike, The Falklands war or even when the Grand Hotel in Brighton was bombed during the Conservative Party Conference, and other things which shaped her time in office, that made her the controversial women she was.

The only exception is Streep's brilliant performance, in which she pulls off Thatchers acid tongue and presence so well, Just a shame about everything else really, Broadbent serves as an okay supporting actor, but it the Streep show, which will most probably see her get nominations galore, but I'm afraid it will be the only praise the film will get.

For a biopic film, this is a miss, I'm afraid. I would search out the brilliant BBC drama, which was on in 2009, 'Margaret'. Which is a far better watch then this. It's a case of the actress outshining the actual film.

2 out of 5