The Iron Lady, dir. Phyllida Lloyd

I was a bit reticent about seeing The Iron Lady, worried that it would be an hagiography of Margaret Thatcher, something that would've been hard to stomach. The fact that Norman Tebbitt said he dislikes it was the first clue that this may be a film worth seeing and in fact it turned out to be a must see with superb performances by Meryl Streep as Thatcher and Jim Broadbent as her husband Dennis.

The film goes through her career becoming a female MP in a male world to the west's first woman Prime Minister and then her ousting from office (the scene at the Cabinet meeting when she tells Geoffrey Howe to go and pay 85% of his money in tax to THE FRENCH if he likes europe so much was an absolute joy). The events dipicted all seem a long time ago now but she divided opinions to such an extent that she still inspire's admiration or hatred depending on point of view. I'm sure I can't be the only one who had that the thought of 'if only he'd given her a lift home' when her friend Airey Neave was blown up by the Irish National Liberation Army car bomb as he left the House of Commons in 1979 (only weeks before she got elected and brought in the 'greed is good' free markets that have led us to the mess we're in now).

The really interesting part of the film is its treatment of her dementia, cutting from her present confused state, with Dennis appearing to her even though he died 8 years previously, back to her years in power. Even though she struggles to remember recent events and is often confused you can still see the old Thatcher coming through in her treatment of others. The film is essentially about the human aging process, the fight against the dieing of the light that no one can avoid in the end whoever you are.