POSITIVES:
1) Meryl Streep is absolutely spellbinding here. She completely deserved the Oscar she won for this performance. I thought Jim Broadbent was very good too 2) I thought the film did a good job in the present day scenes with elderly Thatcher of making us engaged emotionally. The creative decision to have Thatcher hallucinating her late husband's presence throughout the film was an inventively good choice I thought 3) I was impressed by how the film managed to take such a balanced, non-judgmental view of its lead character. It is much more of a character study of a human being than it is a biopic of a famous ruler. The film doesn't shy away from Thatcher's flaws and her poor moments, but it also doesn't vilify her and allows some positive traits to shine through too
NEGATIVES:
1) The pacing was really an issue for me. I felt like the first half was extremely slowly paced to the point of boredom, but then the second half rapidly flies through massive historical events without giving itself anytime to properly flesh them out 2) Apart from Thatcher and her husband every other character felt extremely one dimensional. The film doesn't seem interested at all in making any of its side characters appear well rounded or empathetic. Most of the side characters are just portrayed as generic stuck up Tories, rather than the important historical figures that they each were in their own right 3) I don't think the non-linear structure of the film was the best way for it to be. I found myself getting frustrated at several points when we were leaving the interesting stuff to instead watch elderly Thatcher doing very mundane things like watching an old home video. I think it would've been better if the film was simply bookended by elderly Thatcher rather than constantly cutting back to her. This would've made the narrative more digestible and linear as well.
1) Meryl Streep is absolutely spellbinding here. She completely deserved the Oscar she won for this performance. I thought Jim Broadbent was very good too 2) I thought the film did a good job in the present day scenes with elderly Thatcher of making us engaged emotionally. The creative decision to have Thatcher hallucinating her late husband's presence throughout the film was an inventively good choice I thought 3) I was impressed by how the film managed to take such a balanced, non-judgmental view of its lead character. It is much more of a character study of a human being than it is a biopic of a famous ruler. The film doesn't shy away from Thatcher's flaws and her poor moments, but it also doesn't vilify her and allows some positive traits to shine through too
NEGATIVES:
1) The pacing was really an issue for me. I felt like the first half was extremely slowly paced to the point of boredom, but then the second half rapidly flies through massive historical events without giving itself anytime to properly flesh them out 2) Apart from Thatcher and her husband every other character felt extremely one dimensional. The film doesn't seem interested at all in making any of its side characters appear well rounded or empathetic. Most of the side characters are just portrayed as generic stuck up Tories, rather than the important historical figures that they each were in their own right 3) I don't think the non-linear structure of the film was the best way for it to be. I found myself getting frustrated at several points when we were leaving the interesting stuff to instead watch elderly Thatcher doing very mundane things like watching an old home video. I think it would've been better if the film was simply bookended by elderly Thatcher rather than constantly cutting back to her. This would've made the narrative more digestible and linear as well.
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