"Only on afternoons when the cinema offers retirees half-price tickets has there been much of a crowd for The Iron Lady, the controversial film about Mrs. Thatcher, who is now 86. [...] A therapist, Lauren Hall, 24, had her own perspective. 'People who come to Grantham are more interested in Isaac Newton,' who attended school in the town from 1655 to 1661 and has a statue in the town’s main square, she said. In case the visitor had not grasped Newton’s place in history, she offered a prompt. 'Did you know he invented the cat flap?' she said." Huh. This can only benefit Viola Davis, right? [NYT]
Spoiler alert? "I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the preoccupation the director shows with Maggie’s shoes. There are so many shoe-shots in the film, it’s downright laughable. When she leaves number 10 for the last time, the shot lingers long enough on Streep’s walking feet it made me wonder if there was a shoe fetishist behind the camera. She wasn’t Imelda Marcos, after all. And the final scene of the movie: Maggie washes out her teacup in the sink. How tragic! Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah! The filmmakers could not resist that final, petty, hate-filled blow." [Big Hollywood]
Phyllida Lloyd and Meryl Streep work a puny bit of flim-flammery in The Iron Lady: They turn Margaret Thatcher into a folk hero, a woman who, poor lamb, had to make sacrifices in her personal life in exchange for political power. This is a watery, artfully evasive picture, anchored by a stupendous feat of mimicry. Some people call that acting.
more »
