Take the vocal-therapy scenes from The King’s Speech, add Meryl Streep’s Julia Child falsetto and some excellently timed Madness (the band), and you have the first 30 seconds of the trailer for Iron Lady, the long-awaited Maggie Thatcher biopic. There are more familiar scenes on hand: the lonely, powerful British woman shot (from The Queen), the storming 10 Downing Street shot (also the Queen), Meryl Streep looking pained in the back of a limo (The Devil Wears Prada), and men looking stunned at a makeover (half the rom-coms in existence). But the focus here is, of course, Streep’s Thatcher impression, which appears to be a mix of Streep as Julia Child, Streep as Anna Wintour, and Streep as Hillary Rodham Clinton circa 2008. (“I’ve been at battle every day of my life†is an HRC campaign quote if ever we’ve heard one.) Streep commits, obviously; that “Cowardice†moment is legitimately intimidating, and the trailer’s kicker — “Gentleman, shall we join the ladies?†(in a ruff collar that evokes Elizabeth) — suggests she’ll get plenty of big lines with which to work her Oscar magic. In the meantime, are you buying it? And how is everyone feeling about those scarves?
