2/9: The Iron Lady

It's time for day #17 on my 34 Days of Oscar. I am now halfway through this movie a day experiment. For Day #17, I saw "The Iron Lady". This movie has been nominated for 2 Academy Awards: Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and Best Makeup.

The category for Best Makeup was first officially created in 1981 after the Academy received complaints that the movie "The Elephant Man" was not going to be honored for it's makeup job. Ironically, when this category Best Makeup was announced, "The Elephant Man" was not even nominated and "An American Werewolf in London" won the first award. There are usually only three nominees with the exceptions being in the first years of the award when there were only 2 nominees and in 1999 when there were four. The nominees are chosen by the makeup branch and then all members of the academy vote for the winner.

"The Iron Lady" is the life story of Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving Prime Minister of England of the 20th Century. It is told in flashback over 3 days as an elderly Thatcher (Meryl Streep) is suffering from Dementia and struggling to overcome the death of her husband, Dennis (Jim Broadbent). As she reminisces about her early life and how she met David, the memories of her early struggles in a male dominated society come flooding back and she, at times, is unable to separate the present from the past. "The Iron Lady" documents her lifelong attempt to get power and the personal consequences she suffers as a result of that determination.

I loved Meryl Streep's performance in "The Iron Lady". She is Margaret Thatcher here. Her nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress is highly deserved and she has a real shot at winning it too. Her mannerisms and speech are perfectly like Thatcher in this movie. Even more impressive in this movie than Streep's acting, was the makeup. Just the opening scene of an older Margaret Thatcher shopping for milk was enough to make me think this movie is going to win the Academy Award for Best Makeup. So often when you see old age makeup in a movie you can see the actor behind the mask, but not in this case. Some of the best scenes in the movie are with Thatcher, old and suffering from dementia, imagining conversation with her deceased husband. Jim Broadbent does a good job here as her husband, sounding board and best friend. I only wish the movie itself was a little more interesting. There are interesting things that happen, but the film jumps around in time and never stays in any situation long enough to be interesting. Even the Falkland Island invasion gets less than 10 minutes screentime and when Thatcher and her husband are nearly killed by a bomb, it is swept away and never mentioned again.

I give "The Iron Lady" 3.5 out of 5 starts. The majority of my positive review is from the amazing makeup job and the performances of Streep and Broadbent. The story itself could have been told better and a perhaps just a little more interesting. I do recommend people see this movie for the look and performance of Streep as Margaret Thatcher. It is one of the best performances I have seen by anyone in a long time.