Meryl Streep earned her Oscar, but what a lousy biopic.

disgusting

A spectacular performance by Meryl Streep (who DID deserve the Oscar) does not rescue this middling, cheesy, timid biopic to anything other than what should have been a Lifetime Original Movie.

Streep and the make-up stand out. Wait just one second... did the Academy get something right?

It's so sad because Meryl streep's performance is absolutely brillant.

Assombrosa a interpretação de Meryl Streep em "A Dama de Ferro". É uma coisa tipo "baixou o espírito" da M.Tatcher, com ela em vida, vejam vocês. Quanto ao filme, alguém já escreveu que ele nao chega aos pés da atuação da Meryl. Daí fica descompensado, capenga mesmo. Um bom filme (só), que vale (e muito) pela atriz.

As always Streep brings her A-game. Her performance as Thatcher once again shows why she's the best living actress around, sadly it is however not enough to make up for a story with confusing use of flashbacks and pretty huge holes in the plot.

Excruciatingly boring.

Meryl Streep is great, as usual, but the film leaves you wanting more.

Well, it's again a typical Oscar movie. Don't get me wrong, the performance from Streep is 120% on-the-spot, but the movie just doesn't have a proper plot and editing. In the end it felt as I was watching a documentary of the British politics for the Thatcher era with some annoying clips of an old dement lady in between. It should have been better if the movie was just a documentary.

God, what happened here? Very very uneven movie... And why was there only 15 minutes about the Faulkland war. But yeah Streep is amazing - it just doesn't make a good movie. Some of the worst cinematography I've seen in a big production for a long time...

Who can say what really know what goes on during the years some endure as Alzheimer's. The film (unethically) never clarifies her diagnosis...Lady Thatcher is a great inspiration to many, love her or hate her she is respected by many. She accomplished more than what we see by leaders do these days. I enjoyed the moments capturing her strengths. Best line to Al Haig (US Secretary) "Now, shall I be mother?… Tea, Al, how do you take your tea? Black or white?”

Meryl Streep is the best actor in town, but even she couldn't save this film. Margaret Thatcher aside-I have no qualms with her, she has her good traits and bad but don't we all-I feel that this film was out of proportion. Too much time was spent on the dementia component, which was meant to add more drama to the film. But do we really need added drama in a biopic on someone as polarizing as Margaret Thatcher? The dementia component slowed down the film and detracted from the film's statement

Watchable but somewhat pointless account of Thatcher's descent into Alzheimer's, using her flashbacks to outline what she sees as the important moments of her personal and professional life. Streep is predictably the best thing in it (there have been better Maggie 'impressions' however none brought this warmth to the role) but even with her presence it still feels like a Sunday night, BBC4 job rather than an Oscar-winning theatrical release.

A complete waste of time. Out of many interesting things there could have been in a movie about Thatcher, the director has decided to spend half of the movie showing Meryl Streep walking slowly from one place to another talking to his dead husband. Seriously!! Watching this, Thatcher looks like a boring asshole. Just watching a five minute YouTube video of Thatcher speaking, gives you more information than this two hour "Drama".

So very British--and that is not a good thing. Meryl Streep gives us yet another meticulous accent and voice transformation as the aged Thatcher, making us painfully aware of every grain of her craft. Every mundane element of her daily life leads to a new, insightful flashback, full of "meaning", each one elucidatng less of Thatcher's personality than the one before. Finally, when we see Thatcher at the height of her political power, do we see some of the fire that makes Streep great. Awful.

Nothing to admire here in terms of directoral flair! The whole film is utterly uninspired. Streep props it up with a great piece of mimicry, & Colemans performance (terrible nose prosthetic aside) as Britains resident villiage idiot Carol Thatcher is admirable. The main issue is that this movie is so spinless. A movie about MT should be controversial, but Lloyd instead tries to show us a monsters human side. Amazingly the result is a movie almost as insulting to Thatcher as it is to the viewer!

I wanted more historical perspective and a deeper analyses of Thachter. Pity. Streep is superb as always.

Meryl Streep is (like usual) unnaturally good in this... but, that's about it. The story is boring and non-educational, teaching me nothing and leaving me unengaged, not mention shoddy camerawork and sound.

The movie was perfect setup for Meryl Streep to win yet another Oscar. I felt the story was bit weak and could have been definitely better. Well the movie gets a higher rating than what I would have just for Meryl Streeps acting.

Meryl Streep is perfect as Thatcher. Incredible how she can humanize even people she doesn't necessarily like. Well deserved Oscar, as usual.

Streep is absolutely amazing and there are enough interesting things to make an above average biopic.

The present-day focus and flashback structure was uninteresting and very misguided. Thankfully, though there wasn't enough of it, that showing Thatcher's rise and reign was often great, and Streep gives an amazing performance. Not getting a more politically submerged film is disappointing though - for all its back and forth, The Iron Lady never forces its audience to consider right and wrong. And I think you have a right to expect that from a biopic about such a controversial political figure.

THE IRON LADY may not be a typical boring biopic, but it's not a very good biopic either; bizarrely engaging scenes of a senile Margaret Thatcher interacting with her husband's ghost alternate with a choppy look at her life, hitting a few high points but failing to give any feel for the political context of the era. Abi Morgan's script is poor, but Meryl Streep is fine as Thatcher, and Jim Broadbent is quite fun to watch as her husband; Phyllida Lloyd's direction is functional but unremarkable.

Thomas Newman + Political Cinema is worth it.

It's certainly well made and well acted. Meryl convinces as Maggie and I think they nicked some of Carol Thatcher's wardrobe for Olivia Colman to wear. However, the film just doesn't show the controversy provoked by Thatcher, or really why she was ousted. An interesting curio with strong acting, no more

It wasn't overly meaningful, but a fantastic performance by Meryl Streep. I thought it was enjoyable because it wasn't overly political or about Thatcher's career, instead it was about a powerful woman and a reflection of her life. That said, there were no major enlightenments that really wow'd me with this film.

The film did a great job in failing to communicate a tangible plot. It succeeded in combining a fascinating piece of history with an amazing performance by Meryl Streep into almost two hours of confusing blandness.

Broadbent is good and Streep even better. Sadly the script is too shallow and the flashback narration doesn't work that well.

Streep's powerhouse performance can't make up for confusing, sloppy storytelling. How did Thatcher rise to power as the first female leader of a western democracy? What drove her? How did she maintain power for 11 years - and what caused her fall? These central questions are only remotely addressed making the main character utterly uninteresting - and that's the real controversy. As a result 'The Iron Lady' is poorly conceived both as a film and a history lesson.

Streep is awesome as Thatcher but as for the film trying to get some sympathy toward Thatcher portraying her as "human" like the rest of us.....don't make me laugh!. Thatcher was a monster....nuff said.

Weak star-vehicle checklisting the british prime minister's most famous historical passages with hardly any insight. Should be noted for turning an intriguing and hugely dividing political story and subject into soporific blandness.

I think people can agree that Meryl is pretty good throughout, but as a whole this film isn't very good. Namely I don't understand why they chose to tell the story in this way, when so many exciting things happened to Thatcher and England in the 80's. It sucks to be watching these moments of history just to be torn out and thrown into another delusion.

With apologies to Madame Streep, I found it dry, and forgettable...

Streep's astonishing portrayal of Thatcher carries uneven film; skimps on her political impact and decisions and instead focuses on her story of a glass ceiling breaker, told touchingly looking back as a dementia sufferer. Unfortunately heavy-handed directorial choices and a fairly obvious screenplay diminish the film's impact somewhat, and odd ommissions (her legendary battles with Queen Elizabeth) makes it less satisfying than it ought to be. Definitely worth-while for Meryl's 100 performance!

once again great acting from Streep.. I wish they had used a simpler way of storytelling, there are too many flashbacks that dont work, the editing is so much calculated and engineered, emotional flow is a bit ignored

Needed to have more of a political side

"Surely no one expected this movie to be masterful, as Streep has made it rather clear that she's not much interested in working with filmmakers whose talents might outshine her own." - R. Kurt Osenlund

The Iron Lady doesn't confuse its tribute because Streep and Lloyd find a deeper core to Thatcher than her political achievements.

Streep's astonishing portrayal of Thatcher carries uneven film; skimps on her political impact and decisions. The movie lacked depth in spells and was a bit of a snore.

One of Streep's best performances. She deserves every bit of acclaim she gets. Now to the film: I was too young and not British to know much of anything about Thatcher beyond the fact that she was an extremely controversial figure, so I value the education this gave me. The rest of the film is a mess. I know, I know, people are tired of cookie cutter biopics, but that's the film's problem: it's too self-aware. It tries so desperately to be something fresh, but it's just all over the map.

when will you die, maggie?!

Sentimental clap-trap. And boring too.