Meryl Was Miscast
She wasn't invested completely in this film, and the film suffered for it. Meryl was the weakest link. I'd rather see Emma Thompson play her, she would have been able to save this film. Alexandra Roach, who played the young Margaret, was aptly more believable, even though the whole "let's make Thatcher a feminist" did trickle in there, however, even though the subject would abhor that label being placed on her when she did not herself own it on her agency.
That being said, I liked the intelligent script and the approach taken by Phyllida Lloyd, but I thought that it would have been better to show more sexist encounters Thatcher experienced in office, as well as how she chose to manifest them on her person. And, this is not coming from a political perspective at all, I was just famished for depth as there were so many things unexplored that it made it hard to achieve showing women can lead a country successfully as I believe Lloyd was trying to show. But, what hurts the film is the glossed over details and the exceptionalization of the subject. I realize the historical importance might justify the need for that, but in order to show equality, the subject must be treated as if she was a man in order to be viewed as such in a presentation such as this.