The Iron Lady

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd

(PG-13)

**

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Meryl Streep is, without question, “the main reason to see The Iron Lady,” said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. As Margaret Thatcher, Streep so convincingly “summons up the voice and spirit” of the controversial former British prime minister that if you closed your eyes, you might think it was 1985 again. Too bad that the movie as a whole doesn’t deserve “the brilliance of its star.” We meet Thatcher in the present—as she looks back from her dementia-tainted dotage to her humble beginnings and rise to power. But as incidents pile up, the filmmakers “seem to have little clear idea of what they think about Thatcher,” said Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. If ever the subject of a biopic cried for opinionated treatment, this polarizing figure would seem to be it. Too much of the film plays like a bland career highlight reel, said Peter Rainer in CSMonitor.com. Some scenes are redeemed by Streep’s “emotional investiture” in her role, but even a multiple Oscar winner “can’t single-handedly give depth and nuance to a movie so briskly content with skimming surfaces.”