Last night I went to the see The Iron Lady at Kilburn’s Tricycle Theatre – my local independent cinema.

Reflections on the film are below, but a couple of other thoughts before that.

First, I’m upset with myself that I haven’t visited the Tricycle before, despite having lived in the area for the best part of a year. It’s a lovely space, with a smattering of kooky features (for example, the motorised washing line in the hall) and reasonable ticket prices. I understand it has been severely affected by reductions in the arts budget, which is a shame. I’m certainly intending to go more often.

Second, I was at university with Harry Lloyd, who plays a young Dennis Thatcher in the film. More than that, I worked on a production with him whilst there – a version of David Mamet’s American Buffalo (he was out front, I was doing sound design). Of all the people involved in acting whilst I was at university whom I met, he is the only one to have made a success of it since. It is rather weird seeing him on the big screen, or even on TV (he recently starred in the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations). Nonetheless, I’m pleased for him – I remember him being a thoroughly nice chap.

So what of the movie?

I made the mistake of reading a couple of reviews before I went which suggested the plot was thin (as the movie is a biopic, such criticism is slightly absurd). However, while not quite what I was expecting, I thought the screenplay was rather effective in weaving together a disparate group of events throughout Thatcher’s life: her formulative experiences in her father’s grocery shop in Grantham; selection in Dartford (and meeting Dennis); becoming an MP in Finchley; as Education Secretary in Heath’s Cabinet; battling to become leader of the Conservatives; as Prime Minister battling Trade Unions, being attacked by the IRA, going to war in the Falklands; and, ultimately, being forced from office.

Interestingly, all the reviews I read which criticised the (absence of) plot were written by men. For me, one of the strongest themes of the movie relates to feminism and the struggle of a woman against an establishment set up to frustrate her aspiration and zeal. The movie grounds Thatcher’s ambition firmly in her father’s political beliefs – that it is up to those who can do better for themselves to do so. “I’ve fought many battles” she says when discussing the Falklands war with the US Secretary of State.

Yet this ambition and drive – the very thing which propels Thatcher to Downing Street – is also her undoing. In the scenes towards the end of her tenure as Prime Minister, Streep portrays a rather manic, obsessed and aloof Thatcher, oblivious to the fact she is powerless to prevent her term as Prime Minister from ending. It is up to her husband, Denis (played by the remarkable Jim Broadbent), to let her know that the game is up.

That contrast, between a young ambitious Thatcher and one battling with the shackles of age, is also reflected in Thatcher’s relationship to her mother. A young Thatcher, on getting a telegram informing her of a place at Oxford, fails to impress her mother, whose hands are wet from washing dishes (and to which she soon returns). Later, Thatcher accepts Dennis’ marriage proposal only on the basis that he doesn’t expect her to stay at home doing the housework and rearing the children. “Life must be about more than that” says Thatcher, adding, “I don’t want to die washing the dishes”. And yet, in the very final scene of the movie, an aged, lonely Thatcher washes up her own teacup, rejecting an offer from one of her assistants to do so. She fought hard against what her mother became, but ultimately – despite everything that she achieved – couldn’t escape it completely. “I don’t recognise myself” she says at one point watching television footage of her as an old woman.

Age, and in particular the battle with dementia, is the strongest theme of the movie, and the one around which the screenplay revolves. Throughout  Thatcher battles against hallucinations of her dead husband Denis, trying to convince those around her that there is nothing wrong with her (including an amusing scene with her doctor). Yet Thatcher’s memories occupy her far more fully than her otherwise mundane existence. Her main struggle as an elderly woman is living in the present, rather than the comfort of the past.

I imagine fully that many of those going to see the movie may dislike it for one of either two reasons. Firstly, their political priors reject the portrayal of Thatcher. I found the character rather human, allowing us to understand why she fought the battles – even those well documented and about which there is much resentment – in the way she did. Secondly, releasing a biopic about a woman who is still aliv, and focusing so heavily on her most recent years makes the dementia and drinking slightly uncomfortable viewing. David Cameron may be right in saying the movie came too soon.

But if nothing else, then I’m sure the one thing which those seeing the film will likely agree on is that Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Thatcher is astonishing (amongst an incredibly talented supporting ensemble). It is worth seeing for that alone.