At The Cinema At Gloucester Guildhall this week: Never compromise with 'The Iron Lady'

February at The Cinema At Gloucester Guildhall continues this week, with the first of three films that are expected to do good business at this year's major award ceremonies. With War Horse and The Artist making their mark at last month's Golden Globes, attention is now drawn to the BAFTAs (Sunday 12th Feb- coverage on BBC One from 9pm) and of course, the Oscars (Sunday 26th Feb- coverage on Sky Movies Premiere). As always, the list of winners from both ceremonies will feature here in future blog posts so keep your eyes peeled.

We begin our award favourites season however, with one of the most talked about films in recent memory, namely for one central performance by an icon of the silver screen playing one of the 20th century's most famous and influential women. We are of course referring to The Iron Lady, a surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher,the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. Taking centre stage is none other than the multi-Academy Award nominated Meryl Streep (The Deer Hunter, Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer) who is reunited with director Phyllida Lloyd in their first collaboration since the box office smash, Mamma Mia! (officially the most financially successful British film ever released.)

Penned by British screenwriter Abi Morgan (Brick Lane, Shame and TV's The Hour) this biopic charts Thatcher's journey from her early and formative political years, where she came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class so as to be heard in a male dominated world. Working at her father's greengrocers in Grantham and inspired by his political speeches as Alderman, we witness a young Margaret's struggle as a lower-middle class woman to break into a male dominated Tory Party and earn her seat in the House Of Commons. Following her marriage to Dennis Thatcher (Jim Broadbent) as well as the loss of her friend and colleague Aiery Neave, she decides to run for Leader of the Conservative Party, embarking on a radical image change and a voice coaching regime. In the present day, however, we witness her struggle with dementia and old age fully realising the personal price she paid for power. It this latter period, in which she is unable to distinguish her past and present and even has conversations with her (dead) husband Dennis, that acts as the films central narrative strand allowing the film to examine major historical events throughout her political career in flashbacks. Such events, that summed up the general discontent of an 80's Britain, include the rising unemployment and tight budget of 1981 which lead to the Brixton Riots, the miners' strike of 1984-5 and the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party Conference which almost killed both Margaret and Dennis. The film would of course not be complete without witnessing the moment she decided to reclaim the Falkland Islands back from Argentina following their invasion in 1982. Despite the subsequent victory, it did make the conflict all the more controversial due to the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano.

Co-starring Anthony Head (TV's Buffy and Merlin) as Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Howe, and Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I) as Secretary for Defence Michael Heseltine, the applause has to nay MUST be given to Streep whose performance is reliably perfect. Every component in the way she portrays Thatcher works absolutely brilliantly: her voice, her posture, her movements and facial expressions, her frightening and sudden imperiousness. It is put simply one of Streep's finest performance and if an Oscar does not come her way this year (it's unlikely but you never know) then there is no justice in the world. It is also interesting in the way in which the film allows to depict her rise and fall to power from her own point of view especially when filtered through the distorted lens of her Alzheimers stricken mind.


Don't miss your opportunity one of the best performances of 2012 so far at The Cinema At Gloucester Guildhall.


Check out the trailer below:

The Iron Lady (12A) runs from Friday 10th February - Thursday 16th February