Chilling insensitivity
THE IRON LADY
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Cert. 12A. Running time: 105 minutes
Who, in their right mind, would want to see a film about someone suffering with dementia? No one, of course, unless that person happens to be Margaret Thatcher, or someone of her stature.
Few people in history have had even a tenth of the extraordinary conviction and strength of character that typified Mrs. Thatcher. Flashbacks between past and present juxtapose that phenomenal strength with the weakness of mind-numbing dementia.
To their credit, the scriptwriters never lost sight of the character of the ‘Iron Lady’, but there was not the same integrity in portraying her dementia. Parts ring true — the slipping into another world, the losing track of time and place, the muddled thinking interrupted with flashes of clarity. The rest was conjecture.
Making things up
The Thatcher family did not want to co-operate with the film, so presumably what they didn’t know they made up. Her daughter’s book says that there were times when she forgot that Dennis Thatcher had died, but does she really believe he turns up over breakfast?
Meryl Streep as Thatcher deserves her accolades. Richard E. Grant’s Hesseltine looks suitably Malvolion and Harry Lloyd’s young Dennis Thatcher is brilliant.
And that’s the best that can be said. As the credits rolled up at the end, the entire cinema sat in silence. They seemed to be as chilled as I felt at the insensitivity and voyeurism. How can it be right to show someone in the throes of dementia and in terminal decline? How would it be if there was an unauthorised film made about someone else like this while that person was still alive? Can you imagine the reaction of Americans if anyone had made a film like this about President Reagan in his time? The charity I work for, the Pilgrims’ Friend Society, cares for people with dementia (among others). The main aim is to maintain their dignity and to honour them as the precious person they are in God’s sight. There is another film, The Note Book, about a couple where the wife develops dementia, which does just that. But not The Iron Lady — it is debasing.
Louise Morse,
author of three books on dementia published by Monarch;
Media and Communications Manager for the Pilgrims’ Friend Society
