After his success with the multiple-Oscar-winning movie â??The Kingâ??s Speech,â? Harvey Weinstein must have concluded that the present American love affair with all things British â?? 52.3 million Americans watched the royal wedding in April on NBC alone, for example â?? can make for good box office. So in the new year weâ??ll be getting â??W.E.,â? a film about the 1936 abdication crisis, and later this month â??Iron Ladyâ? â?? a biopic-through-flashbacks about the extraordinary life and tumultuous career of Margaret Thatcher, with Meryl Streep in the title role.
Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher. The jowls, the hair, the deportment, the mouth (once likened by Francois Mitterrand to that of Marilyn Monroe), the way her eyes suddenly narrow and flash, and above all the uncannily accurate voice make this far more than a mere impersonation; it is another Oscar-worthy performance. Having known Margaret Thatcher for 20 years, been appointed by her to take her place on the board of her archive trust, and been to dinner at her house, as she has to mine, I can attest that Meryl Streep has caught her to an almost ethereal degree, at least in her post-premiership phase. (People who knew her well as prime minister say that Streepâ??s portrayal of that period is far too screechy and strident.)
