- Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
- Starring Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloyd, Olivia Colman & Richard E. Grant,
- Runtime 105 minutes
- Classification: TBC
AS Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep gives an Oscar winning performance. Not only does she make herself look like Margaret Thatcher, she has her facial expressions and mannerisms down pat. As the first female head of government in the Western World, Margaret Thatcher was also Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th Century. It’s a story of a woman who crashed through the barriers of gender and class to be a leader in a male dominated world, and is about power and the price that is paid for it. Also it’s an intimate portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman, which is both inspiring, touching and at times rather sad.
British theatre, opera and television director, and filmmaker Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!), and her screenplay writer Abi Morgan (Brick Lane) take us in the mind of the 86-year-old now Lady Thatcher who now suffers from Alzheimer’s. Through a series of flashbacks, skilfully engineered by editor Justine Wright, we taken back through Margaret Thatcher’s life, from her early day in Grantham working in her parent’s grocery shop, right up to the time, her stubbiness over the pole tax, saw her leadership challenged by Michael Heseltine (Richard E. Grant), and her political colleagues turn against her, only to be replaced by John Major. Now like most old people, and with her devoted husband now dead, all she has left are her memories.
When she was Prime Minister you can see how well informed and stalwart she was. There’s a telling scene when America’s Secretary of State Alexander Haig is trying to tell her that Britain need not go to war with Argentina because of their invasion of the Falkland Islands. She reminds him that the Islands belong to Britain, and regardless of how remote they were. Like when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, America went to war over the attack of Hawaii, a remote chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that belonged to America. Similar to the remote Falkland Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
We first meet Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), now in her 80s, at home in Chester Square, London, having breakfast. Although her husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent), has been dead for several years, she has finally decided to clear out his wardrobe, something that brings back memories. As she plans her day Denis appears to her as real as when he was alive, loyal, loving and mischievous. Her daughter Carol Thatcher (Olivia Colman) has been told by her mother’s staff that they are concerned about her mother’s apparent confusion of past and present. The concern becomes stronger when, at a dinner she hosts that night, Margaret captivates her guests, but is then distracted by memories of the dinner at which she first met Denis (Harry Lloyd) 60 years ago.
After the dinner party, Margaret retires to bed but can’t sleep. She gets up and watches some old home movies, and reflects on the sacrifices she made in her private life in pursuit of her career. Next day Carol takes her to a doctor for a check up. Margaret tells the doctor there’s nothing wrong with her, but she doesn’t tell him about the vivid memories of earlier life that invade her waking hours. Back home, Margaret fights against her rising tide of memories, packs up Denis’s belongings and asserts her independence. Of course she has her memories, of when she was young (Alexandra Roach), was admitted into Oxford university, met Denis, gave birth to her twins, Mark and Carol. Became Minister of Education in the Heath government, then leader of the Conservative Party, and then Prime Minister. As she says she has a life in the present, a smaller one than before, but one no less worth living.
The Iron Lady is in cinemas December 26.
The Movie Hound’s Picks
- The Women on the 6th Floor [PG] (Four and a Half Stars – in cinemas December 15)
It’s Paris 1962. When the long time Italian maid to staid and wealthy stockbroker Jean-Louis Jouvert (Fabrice Luchini) and his socialite wife (Sandrine Kiberlain) leaves them over a minor disagreement, the hire a Spanish maid. Maria (Natalia Verbeke) is young, hardworking and highly efficient, lives on the sixth floor of the apartment building Jean-Louis owns. Maria puts new life into Jean-Louis, with her music and the cheerful behaviours of the other Spanish maids living on the sixth floor. Soon Jean-Louis is having the plumbing and other building maintenance things fixed, without grudging the expense. Soon the relationships between master and servant and renters and owners changes, and Jean-Louis and his wife are thrown into confusion. How will it all end, this delightfully funny and charming movie is a must see, and if you are having a bad day, this will see it dramatically change for the better.
- Arriety [TBC] (Four Stars – in cinemas January 12)
In a large Japanese house set in an unkempt garden, lives and old lady and her female housekeeper. Beneath the floorboards lives a family of little people, Arriety, her mother and her father. When the old lady’s 12-year-old grandson Sho arrives to spend time in the quiet of the house, before his heart operation, he sees Arriety in the garden hiding under a leaf. Arriety parents have told her to never let humans see them, because if we are seen we have to move on to another place. After a time Sho and Arriety begin to confide in each other, and a forbidden friendship blooms. Based on Mary Norton’s children’s novel The Borrowers, this imaginative and colourful Japanese animated feature film created by the renowned Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away; Howl’s Moving Castle; Ponyo)., is more than a delight, it’s charming and adorable.
- The Adventures of Tintin [PG] (Three and a Half Stars – in cinemas December 26)
After buying a model ship, the Unicorn, for a pound at a market stall Tintin is puzzled the sinister Mr. Sakharine is so eager to buy it from him. As Tintin, Snowy and a drunken Captain Haddock search the oceans for the original Unicorn a ship scuttled by Haddock’s ancestor Sir Francis Haddock, when attacked by pirates commanded by ancestors of Mr Sakharine. So begins a fearsome fast paced animated action adventure movie, in the style of Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Hergé’s Tintin comic books, captures the spirit but not the heart of Tintin the boy reporter and his faithful dog Snowy. Brilliant animation, good storyline, but not as sincere as the original comics.
- Jack and Jill [PG] (Two Stars – in cinemas now)
When Jill (Adam Sandler) arrives at her twin brother Jack’s (Adam Sandler) house for thanksgiving, Jack’s routine falls apart. Jack doesn’t really like his twin sister Jill’s yearly invasion of his home and family. Jill is loud, corse and not exactly very feminine. Sandler can be funny, but also silly, and this is very silly. While it’s not exactly laugh less, and many will love it, this is a no-brainer as far as movies go. As Al Pacino’s last line say’s “burn this.” Here, here, it’s the best thing for it, burn it!
Lotterywest (PIAF) Film Festival
The Future [M]
- Written and directed by Miranda July
- Starring Miranda July, Hamish Linklater & David Warshofsky
- Runtime 91 minutes
- Two and a Half Stars
THIS is what is called a vanity movie, and although The Future was nominated for a Berlin Gold Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival this year, it’s still nothing more than a piece of vanity filmmaking. Like a vanity book, it’s all mainly about one person, and she’s in your face all the time, doing some weird things. Like speaking the part of a cat, jumping into bed with someone she doesn’t really know or love, and trying to make a video about herself. While Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know; The Center of the World) is an attractive young woman, she gives the impression that weirdness is her game.
So what’s the story? A young couple, Sofie and Jason (Miranda July and Mamish Linklater) apply to adopt a stray cat at the cat pound. The cat Paw Paw (voice Miranda July) is being treated for a wounded paw, they can’t take him with them today, but if they don’t come and pick up on a certain date, he will be euthanized. Their decision to adopt the cat radically changes their perspective on life, literally altering the course of time and space, testing their faith in each other and themselves. Will they make the deadline or will little Paw Paw…?
The Future screens at the Somerville, December 12-18, and at Joondalup Pines, December 20-24.
The Source (La source des femmes) [TBC]
- Written and directed by Radu Mihaileanu
- Starring :Leila Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi & Biyouna
- Runtime 135 minutes
- Three and a Half Stars
In a remote North African Arab village, the women have to walk a long and rough track to get water from a spring, they want it piped into the village. When a young woman :Leila (Leila Bekhti) suggests they deny their husband’s sex, until the water is piped into the village. The men naturally get angry and violent, and soon the withholding sex campaign develops into wanting more than just piped water, they want respect and other elements of emancipation.
How the situation is resolved is a long drawn out affair with numerous side stories, and goings on. While it’s a study of women’s emancipation, it’s a bit too staged to be a great movies. But like all good movies, with a beginning, a middle and an end, it very interesting and justly satisfying.
The Source screens exclusively at Joondalup Pines, December 13-18.
We Have a Pope [M]
- Written and directed by Nanni Moretti
- Starring Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa, Nanni Moretti & Margherita Buy
- Runtime 102 minutes
- Three and a Half Stars
AS the cardinals gather in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to vote for a new pope, most of them are praying that they are not the chosen one. The first vote is inconclusive, on the second, Il Papa [The Pope] (Michel Piccoli) is chosen, but on his way to the balcony to address the faithful gathered below in St Peter’s Square. He pulls back and tells the accompanying cardinals that he can’t go through with it.
Faced with something never experienced before, Il Portavoce [The Vatican’s official spokesman] (Jerzy Stuhr) brings in a male psychotherapist (Nanni Moretti) to try and get Il Papa to see sense. When that doesn’t really work, they take to a female psychotherapist (Margherita Buy) but Il Papa gets lost in the crowd and does things he’s always wanted to do. Like go and see a play, it turns out he always wanted to become an actor before he became a priest. To keep the anxious cardinals thinking Il Papa is still in the Vatican, the spokesman has the commander of the Swiss Guard locked up in the Pope’s Vatican bedroom
This comedy drama is very tongue in cheek comedy, and more on the lite side, than anything with would upset the Catholic Church.
We Have a Pope screens at the Somerville, December 19-24, and at Joondalup Pines, December 27-January 1.
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