Great actor and seemingly wonderful person. But she represents all of the bias you find in artistic evaluation. You can look at any clip of
The Iron Lady, and you will never, ever believe it's a real person you're looking at. But she's Meryl Streep, so, ipso facto, it's great. Viola Davis's performance of Abilene was miles better. And I'll go even further: Kristen Stewart's performance in
Breaking Dawn was miles better.
Is that maybe just because she's playing an actual person whom we've all seen, and only nails Thatcher's looks, speech patterns, and mannerisms by 99%? How about the beginning where she's in disguise at the convenience store?
ReplyDeleteI think I would have liked the portrayal more if she had "nailed it" less but been more believable in a gestalt way. It's less important to mimic the person than to seem real. Though I'm a big believer in good mimickry---someone like Jamie Foxx managed to achieve both (in "Ray"). Not an easy trick, really.
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