Meryl Streep's Iron Lady ...

...blew me away.  What a fantastic performance by one of my favorite actresses.

I thought Viola Davis was wonderful and deserved the Oscar for her performance in The Help, but that was before I saw Iron Lady last night.  The lovely Viola is a Streep fan and will forgive the demotion to second place.

The movie was intense, sad and quiet good.  As the older Margaret Thatcher, the actress was mesmerizing.  The ravages of age were sadly poignant, really.   The problem with Streep is that you forget how good she is until you see her again and then you realize that she makes it look so easy you also forget she isn't the person she is portraying.   I honestly think this is one of her best performances.

Hats off to the make up crew who worked on the film.  They are to be commended for their excellence in aging the characters, quite unlike those that did J. Edger, where some of the aging make-up was over the top.  Granted Streep and Broadbent are already older, but even the dentures she wore looked authentic.

If you are a fan of Streep, go see the movie.  I thought it was excellent and though I disagreed with a lot of Thatcher's politics, she was a tough old gal, but more so, I think, because she had to prove that she had as big, if not bigger, balls then the men around her in the political arena.  That that proving might have been detrimental to her in the long run is an interesting question. Strangely enough, her spouse was a more mild mannered type, who cheered her on most of the time and they seemed to get along famously.

I was pleasantly surprise how much I enjoyed the movie, though many find fault with the story. This was "one" view of MT, shown through the vulnerability in her later years.  I am sure there is a wealth of material for a few more stories, but this view didn't please everyone.  There are many who feel it is a disrespect to show her thus because she is still alive.  Despite that, I thought it was an even handed attempt to show the woman behind the iron.

I originally set out to see The Artist but didn't get there in time for the performance, so we opted for The Iron Lady.   I'm so glad we did.

The supporting performances, especially Jim Broadbent, were very good.  Alexandra Roach, the actress who played the young Thatcher, was also very credible in the role.

If she doesn't win the Academy Award this year, I will be very disappointed.  For me she was "that" good.


Songs out of tune, the words always a little wrong...Canzoni Stonate