No, no, no. No Maggie here.

A rather short, poor old lady narrates us the awesome life of Margaret Thatcher. Oh yes, this version of Meryl Streep is supposed to be Maggie in 2012, or at least the Maggie shaped by Phyllida Lloyd’s imagination. Quite a commercial success and a personal achievement of Oscar winner Meryl.

The objective is to describe Thatcher not as much as a political figure but rather as a working woman, former grocer’s daughter, mother, ambitious youngling and stubborn wife. An “Iron Lady” that is, parallel to the politician but not exactly the politician; obviously this is not incompatible with reality. Thatcher was nothing but a politician.

The director uses the flashback technique rather too often; this bouncing from present to past and vice-versa does little to contribute to the storyline, nor it gives a flow to the narration. Some stops at Thatcher’s life moments seem a bit dull.

And while you’re yawning carefree and lay your lazy hand searching for more pop-corn, you violently get jarred by Maggie Streep’s screech in a moment of in-House hysteria directed to the opposition leader. 

Ok, well, I get it; it’s not a political film. Then why “Iron Lady”? How’s the film justifying the title? How can you detach a politician from her good or bad deeds but you can show bits of IRA, Thatcherism, the war on the unions? Why did this woman feel guilt, if so, anyway?

There’s that young, ambitious, almost sexy girl starring early in the film striving to prove herself in a manly world. How sad; admirable; I feel sympathetic, but, hey, this is NOT Maggie. Dunno how you call her, but it’s not Maggie.

 

Excellent, chic, up-to the date costumes. And of course, was there any real actor in this film, other than Meryl Streep? Surely Thatcher is the central figure, but this would all be stronger if others would actually play.

This is an indifferent piece, deceitful, charming and not suitable for a nice slam! In the end, one does not see how cool - or not - Thatcher was as a leader, but more like how awesome Streep would make of a prime minister.

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Broken City: vote for the wig!

Mark Wahlberg plays former police officer Billy Taggart, now a private detective in the new action movie by Allen Hughes “Broken City”. The title refers to no other city than New York during the pre-election period for local governors.

There are two candidates: Nicholas Hostetler and Jack Valliant. One is bad, the other is good, as in such films there is no other option, you gotta accept it. This battle between good and evil has become so trivial! Like we couldn’t see vegetarians vs meat lovers, or Lady Gaga fans vs Rihanna fans... Please!

Naturally, no case, no crime, no punishment, no pre-election campaign can take place without a couple of sexy women legs. The law of Hollywood here is impenetrable and clear, no exceptions. So the leg-role is given to Catherine Zeta Jones, playing the insatiably charming and mysterious wife of Russel, who for some reason I strongly believe wears a wig. Ah, old age doesn’t come alone... How one can fall from being a sexy gladiator to running for office... Following Arnold’s steps, even though the latter become a governor, which is more impressive I’d say.

Billy Taggart commits a murder then due to excessive enthusiasm. As a result, his badge, gun and macho attitude are taken away from him and he ends up as a private detective dealing with lover cheats, squabbles, petty larcenies and such. Obviously this transformation from a criminal hunter to a family fortune teller has broken his spirit, it’s not exactly an alternative... Mayor Hostetler however hires him to find his wife’s lover and Billy begins to remember old times. Things like financial scandals make it complicated though.

Action comes in place basically when Catherine appears. I have to admit she’s really, really impressive. Now the scriptwriter messes up what was unfolding as a quite interesting plot by choosing to collate many different stories and events to keep suspense up. In the end we watch a bunch of irrelevant scenes. For instance, I don’t really think it was necessary to learn about how the sister of Billy’s wife died. Generally Billy’s love life is as boring as a cartoon and, despite so, the film talks about it for just too long!

One more thing. Billy breaks up with his wife because he was too jealous seeing her starring in a porn film. Here Hollywood needs to pay some attention; you can’t have two inapt people fuck each other like there’s no tomorrow and then call this “art”. Ok, this was my thought.

Anyway, later in the film we follow Billy’s endeavour to resolve the Hostetler case that now includes murder, weird alliances, manhunting, debates and of course scandals. A pre-election cycle has never been so much fascinating!

Good and evil intertwines perfectly. Yes! In this film the bad guy is Russel!! He’s finally not wretched, not the victim, not the sexy guy!I won’t comment on the ending, as it’s the top moment when justice is done! For all. For everything. It’s at least surrealistic...
I can say Wahlberg sells as a good decayed detective, even though he turns a little rough sometimes that make him look like a football fan after his team lost the cup. Or, worse, like a doorkeeper who just got his door poohed by a Juck Russel puppy. Dear Mark, you ain’t got rough mate!

Russel gives a well performed sleazy ‘n’ smarmy guy. The wig helps a lot!Catherine is just... gorgeous!

On the other hand, Barry Pepper is a fail-choice. His face radiates permanent misery, which climaxes while he grieves the death of his friend. He’s like an ancient Greek woman mourning during a tragedy for the loss of Thebes city!
To be honest action scenes keep low and are too predictable. Even so, the screenplay flows nicely with enough well given humour and the title "Broken City" was a successful pick to describe badass corruption within politics and finance.

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