Of everything this Oscar season, the biggest question mark has been "The Iron Lady." While most of the films in play made festival bows months ago, or have started screening for long-lead press by now, Phyllida Lloyd's biopic of legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, starring the equally legendary Meryl Streep, has been kept tightly under wraps, with only a brief teaser trailer showing how the film might turn out.
With the film now set for a December 30th release, it was only going to be a little longer before we saw anything, and this morning has brought the debut of the full trailer for the film. And if there was any doubt as to where the film's political bread might be buttered, it's over on the website for right wing UK tabloid The Daily Mail. So how's it looking? Have the Weinsteins been keeping a stinker under wraps, or have they been hiding a surprise trump card away?
Hmm. On the one hand, the film looks fairly compelling, and well-shot, with some neatly composed images, tempering one of our biggest fears, that the "Mamma Mia" director wasn't the right choice to helm the project (although obviously the proof will be in the pudding). On the other, the clip is something of an apologia for Thatcher; we hope there's more nuance in the film as a whole (and with "The Hour" and "Shame" scribe Abi Morgan writing the script, there's reason to think that'll be the case).
More surprisingly (and at risk of offending the Streep brigade again) we're still to be won over by the glimpses of that central turn, principally thanks to the "Lemony Snicket"-style prosthetics, which are distracting more than anything else — we're more convinced by the snippets of young Alexandra Roach as the younger Thatcher than we are by Streep, who doesn't disappear into the part in the way she normally does. Again, hopefully in context, it'll work better, and she's still a mortal lock for an Oscar nomination regardless. We'll find out how the film turns out when The Weinstein Company puts it into limited release on December 30th.
Wow, this film actually looks kind of positive. I thought it was going to be a hit piece. So nuance, good.
That said, the tone in this trailer is insane, going from bouncy music and humor to supposedly deep emotion in nothing flat and looking like a successor to J. Edgar in the biopic-bites-off-more-than-it-can-chew-and-ends-up-kind-of-lame-and-silly sweepstakes.
Malvina's War – Falkland's War – Go out, Thatcher!
Malvina's War – Falkland's War – Go out, Thatcher!
Malvina's War – Falkland's War – Go out, Thatcher!
Agree with your observations re Streep. And the film's political leanings aside, the tone seems odd for what I presume is a serious biopic.
Every Irish man and woman has a special loathing for this woman.
Despite the fact I loathed Thatcher as well as the current Tory government (looking at you Cameron), this film does look very good.
I have zero sympathy for Thatcher and could care less about any difficulties she faced.
Strangely, the trailers for the 2 awards season Weinstein releases, "The Artist" and "The Iron Lady", both feature the same music…
Dear Lord, I hope those stock footage shots of the real Thatcher and the Cold War don't end up in the final film. Very rarely does footage like that blend well (except in rare cases like Milk) and it was very jarring to see in this trailer.
I'm not sold on Meryl in this. Everything about the project just seems like a dull misfire, much the same as Mira Nair's Amelia did.
This preview is horrible. It's as if Ms Streep has resorted to cheap imitation and parody. Tsk, tsk.