Film: The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep as Mrs Thatcher

Love her or hate her - Margaret Thatcher was an incredibly powerful woman and had a dramatic impact on British life which has extended well beyond her term of office. She said: "there is no such thing as society" and she meant it - sweeping away reforms that had taken years to put in place, to enable the individual to prosper. Her life story, to me has many of the qualities of a Shakespearean tragedy - the heroic struggles she went through to become leader of the government; the extraordinary group of men she had under her control and the ruthless decisions she took - yet she ended up betrayed, as her loyal supporters one by one deserted her.

None of this comes through in Phyllida Lloyd's film 'The Iron Lady'. Meryl Streep does give a superb performance, especially as the middle aged Prime Minister at the height of her powers - shown on the film poster. But much of the film consists of long imaginary scenes of the elderly geriatric widow - staggering around her house suffering from memory loss and hallucinations of her late husband Denis.

Thatcher's early life is glimpsed in little cameos that could have come from a Hovis advert. Air raid sirens - family hiding in a shelter. Heroic Margaret dashes upstairs to put the butter under a glass cover. Within no time she is married, has the twins, a new swept back hairstyle, becomes an MP and is Prime Minister, shouting at everyone in the Houses of Parliament. We see some rioting Irish people and miners and news footage of the Falklands War. But there is little reference to the real seismic changes that were taking place at that time in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and South Africa. Important historical figures: Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Regan are ignored and even her cabinet, Norman Tebbitt, Douglas Hurd, Nigel Lawson, Michael Heseltine is barely identifiable. A young podgy Michael Foot gets a couple of lines - but Jeffrey Howe's dramatic resignation speech is virtually left out.

Jim Broadbent I feel was rather badly cast as Dennis Thatcher. He comes across as a slightly comic character instead of the tough multimillionaire businessman that he must have been.

Overall this is a disappointing film. Margaret Thatcher's life and times were so much more complicated and interesting than this film suggests, and they deserve a more thoughtful examination. As for revealing that the 86-year-old Mrs Thatcher has some sort of dementia - that seems to me very mean-spirited. If I were a member of her family I would not be happy about this.

A much better film which deals with dementia in a compassionate and constructive way - instead of staring at the sufferer with curiosity - is 'Away From Her' with Julie Christie in the title role, made in 2006.