The Iron Lady (2011)

"I'm sure you thought the same thing about Hawaii in 1941." (Margaret Thatcher)

I going to start employing a new template for the review of films on the blog.

General Sentiment
The Iron Lady was a derivative, thoroughly uninteresting look at the life of Margaret Thatcher and squandered much of its promise and all of Meryl Steep's performance.

Writing
I didn't find anything truly abhorrent about the script for the Iron Lady, but I did think that the structural design of the narrative was flawed from the onset. The idea that you could tell the tale of the rise and fall of Margaret Thatcher in a non-linear retrospective without having any detailed understanding of her life at Oxford, her inner motivations, or the inner workings of British politics is an astounding error in my understanding of what makes an excellent bio-pic. 3.5/10

Acting
Meryl Steep is excellent.  She used what prose and positions the director and writers gave her and became Margaret Thatcher.  Its unfortunate that she alone could not save the film. (10/10)

Directing
I can see that Phylidda Lloyd's heat is in the theater, and while that may have proven an asset in the directing of Mama Mia.  It was a detriment to The Iron Lady. If the script and ideas of the film were to be transposed back into a play.  I would go see it.  (2.5/5)

Ephemera
Jim Broadbent plays Margaret Thatcher's imaginary,dead husband.  All I could think of was Margaret Thatcher married to Harold Zidler from Moulin Rouge.

Overall Score
2/5