Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Iron Lady Lite

Left: May 14, 1979 Time magazine cover of Margaret Thatcher
Right: Photo of Meryl Streep as Thatcher in upcoming movie The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep will be channeling Margaret Thatcher for her next movie The Iron Lady. I've written about Streep's never-ending creative (almost musical) ability for mimicking accents. But, from the above photo, I doubt Streep will go any further than caricature, like her depiction of Julia Child in Julie & Julia. Streep doesn't even follow Thatcher's political philosophy. In fact, she may be against it. I think this will add to her turning Thatcher more into a cartoon rather than an all-rounded figure.

Streep's expression in the photo above, which appears to be the early promotional photo for the film, says it all. She has a deer blinded by headlights look, which I'm sure Thatcher never had even in her most difficult days. In fact, the film is about one of Thatcher's most challenging moments, when she protected the Falkland Islands from Argentinian aggression.

Here is a synopsis of The Iron Lady:
The film is reportedly set in 1982, chronicling 17 days of Thatcher's life leading up to the Falklands War and how she dealt with the events.