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quinaraAnd I swear it was one of the most harrowingly sad films of my life.
Quick caveat - really don't agree with Thatcher's politics, but then the first prime minister I remember is Major, so the film probably had a certain remoteness it might not otherwise have had.
But anyway, I was screwed by this film the moment young!Dennis smirked at something young!Thatcher said at a dinner party, after which point I was just shipping them and the film became one long, slow decline towards the conclusion of Thatcher having to accept that the husband whom she loved was dead and her choice between sending his memory away (without any idea whether he'd been happy or not) or keeping her hallucinations of him and actually accepting that she had become a mad old woman in a house. I seem to be interested in the alpha woman+beta man relationship, but this was so full of regret and yet good times that it was just heartbreaking.
The worst thing, though, was the way Thatcher was shown to have spent her life trying and trying to do things and make something of her life other than become a working class housewife, only to find everything she had managed to achieve vanish away from her in her old age, leaving her in front of a sink, washing up a tea cup. And then, in the last moments of the film, she asked if she's going to the House of Lords today and she just says, "Oh no, I'm not going anywhere today." After the film had started with her obstinately escaping the house and her home help to buy a pint of milk in the local shop.
I'm not quite sure what was really so sad about it all, or any more sad than all the other sad films I've sat through without batting an eye, but I think it may have been the thing of ambition->tragedy which always gets to me. Only this wasn't even a tragedy about anything Thatcher had done in particular - it was just the tragedy that resulted from her being herself and life being life. Being ambitious too, I think I find that horrific.
All in all, not a film I'm sure I want to see again, but definitely worth making it to the cinema to see. The acting was excellent. And Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe is definitely worth the price of admission in itself.
Quick caveat - really don't agree with Thatcher's politics, but then the first prime minister I remember is Major, so the film probably had a certain remoteness it might not otherwise have had.
But anyway, I was screwed by this film the moment young!Dennis smirked at something young!Thatcher said at a dinner party, after which point I was just shipping them and the film became one long, slow decline towards the conclusion of Thatcher having to accept that the husband whom she loved was dead and her choice between sending his memory away (without any idea whether he'd been happy or not) or keeping her hallucinations of him and actually accepting that she had become a mad old woman in a house. I seem to be interested in the alpha woman+beta man relationship, but this was so full of regret and yet good times that it was just heartbreaking.
The worst thing, though, was the way Thatcher was shown to have spent her life trying and trying to do things and make something of her life other than become a working class housewife, only to find everything she had managed to achieve vanish away from her in her old age, leaving her in front of a sink, washing up a tea cup. And then, in the last moments of the film, she asked if she's going to the House of Lords today and she just says, "Oh no, I'm not going anywhere today." After the film had started with her obstinately escaping the house and her home help to buy a pint of milk in the local shop.
I'm not quite sure what was really so sad about it all, or any more sad than all the other sad films I've sat through without batting an eye, but I think it may have been the thing of ambition->tragedy which always gets to me. Only this wasn't even a tragedy about anything Thatcher had done in particular - it was just the tragedy that resulted from her being herself and life being life. Being ambitious too, I think I find that horrific.
All in all, not a film I'm sure I want to see again, but definitely worth making it to the cinema to see. The acting was excellent. And Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe is definitely worth the price of admission in itself.
(no subject)
Date: 11/01/2012 23:29 (UTC)>>only to find everything she had managed to achieve vanish away from her in her old age
I wish. Sorry, I have not one charitable thing to say about the old bag.
(no subject)
Date: 11/01/2012 23:36 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 11/01/2012 23:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 11/01/2012 23:55 (UTC)The feeling you describe is exactly what I've been feeling ever since my Dad died. So many things don't matter to me any more, and other things that never bothered me make me angry because, ultimately, we all end up washing teacups and not going anywhere today, and any ambition we once had just makes the reality bite harder...
Bum.
I'd been thinking it looked like a really good film, though, so I'm glad to hear that you thought it was.
(no subject)
Date: 12/01/2012 16:17 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/01/2012 16:26 (UTC)I would definitely recommend it as a film - as much as it twists you around into sympathy with old!Thatcher (at least), it doesn't try very hard to excuse her dickishness of policy. It's much more about her character.