The iron lady

Biopic starring Meryl Streep in an Oscar-winning performance as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher's life and political career are portrayed in flashback from the perspective of her later years as she struggles with Alzheimer's disease and grieves for her recently-deceased husband, Dennis (Jim Broadbent). The film traces her life from her childhood years in the family grocer's shop through to her graduation from Oxford, her early working life and her decision to enter politics. Her eleven-year stint in office is marked not only by her strictly conservative and hard-nosed leadership style, which earn her the nickname 'The Iron Lady', but also by spending cuts, strikes, the introduction of an unpopular poll tax and the Falklands War. Later, as her premiership is called into question, her previously loyal cabinet members - including Michael Heseltine (Richard E. Grant) and Geoffrey Howe (Anthony Head) - turn against her one by one, leading ultimately to her political downfall in 1990. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Make-Up.