In 1990, Ian (my brother's friend from Sheffield, England) came over to the house and showed us a fax that had been sent by his family. There was only one sentence, and it said: "You can come home now, she's gone." And that was how we learned of the political demise of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, aka The Iron Lady, who, according to Ian, did to England what Hamlet did to Ophelia — especially regarding the Falklands War.

Fast-forward two decades and a couple of hefty Thatcher biographies (plus a best-selling autobiography), and now Meryl Streep plays Mrs. Thatcher in "The Iron Lady." Streep is now 62, and it could just be that fate and the winds of cinema had been waiting all this time for the great actress to age like fine wine, enabling director Phyllida Lloyd to capture her performance in a definitive stream of supremely precise portrayals.

Streep has Mrs. Thatcher absolutely down — the way her eyes always seem to be looking down her distinctive nose (prosthetic in this movie, though you wouldn't know it), her mannerisms when speaking in Parliament, the way her voice seems to trill and rumble at the same time. For all intents and purposes, Streep completely submerges her personality in Thatcher's — the woman we see here is not Hollywood's most respected actress honing her excellence but, quite simply, one of the most formidable politicians in the history of Great Britain.