MERYL STREEP AND THE IRON LADY

  Alert:  This is NOT a review of the new film, THE IRON LADY, in which of of my favorite
actresses - the great Meryl Streep - portrays former prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret
Thatcher.
  It's not a review because I don't plan on seeing it.  I know...I know.  It's January when the major
studios dump all their dreck in the market place because attendance is generally down at the
multiplex because most people are home enjoying all the shit presents they got for Xmas, right?
  Granted, a few good films do come out early in the year, but I don't think THE IRON LADY
is one of them.  Why?  Because who gives a shit about Margaret Thatcher?  Be honest now.
Do you have the slightest interest in seeing a biofilm about her?  Maybe, just maybe, if it were
a movie-of-the-week or month or on one of the cable networks, I might just tune in and watch it.
On the other hand, if TCM were showing KING KONG or NATIONAL VELVET for the 30th
time in the last year or TITANTIC was playing on The Movie Channel (Can you believe they're
re-releasing TITANTIC in April in 3D??!!??), I'd pass on watching IRON LADY.
  You see, there's really nothing interesting about Margaret Thatcher.  If there were, the screenplay for the film would have included those things that made Thatcher, well,  fascinating.
But it doesn't, not according to several of the reviews I've read.  All of them praise Streep's
performance and say she both looks and sounds like Thatcher.  But beyond that, there ain't
much happening in the movie other than showing Thatcher as old, suffering from dementia and talking to her dead husband.
  But this isn't a review so I'll stop citing some of them and what they have to say about the film. 
The point of this rant isn't about the quality of the film but rather why did they bother.  What
were the producers who developed the project and the studio head who gave it a green light thinking?  Surely the studio's marketing division was consulted beforehand and its staff would
have advised that there was a better chance of snow falling in Palm Springs, Ca. in July than
a film about Margaret Thatcher making money.  But the project got a green light anyway.
  I recently saw another biopic about the late J. Edgar Hoover, former head of the FBI, a truly compelling and fascinating character who was portrayed quite brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio who is sure to get a best actor nod when the nominations for Oscars are announced later this
month.
  Directed by Clint Eastwood, I started yawning half way thru despite there being a lot of
action and good ensemble acting.  It just didn't grab me and hold my attention and Hoover was in a powerful position for decades whereas Thatcher as prime minister held power for only a few years. 
  I must admit I'm no fan of Thatcher's.  I truly believe that many of her policies - like those
of Ronald Reagan in this country - were ill-advised and in the end were harmful to the economic
developement of Great Britain and impacted negatively on the rest of Europe.  That being the
case, I really have no interest in seeing her depicted in either a positive or negative manner.
  And I don't think that a lot of other movie goers are gonna fork over $12 to see THE IRON
LADY.  I've always said I'd pay to watch Meryl Streep read a telephone book because she is
an amazing actress.  Sophie's Choice, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Deer Hunter and
singing and dancing in Momma Mia.  She's incredible.
  But I'll pass on THE IRON LADY.