This studio comedy—fiercely funny, unexpectedly compassionate—sees self-absorbed novelist Alice Hughes reconnect with old friends on a cruise ship, with Streep on the most emotionally exposed performance since Kramer vs. Kramer.
The movie reunites her with director David Frankel, but it exposes another dimension of her acting in this romantic comedy about couples’ therapy. It lets viewers know that such a perception of her as an ordinary actress is way off the mark.
1. The Devil Wears Prada
In this film adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s bestseller, Streep made a name for herself as Miranda Priestly, which brought her an Academy Award nomination and turned her into an icon. Chemistry between Streep and Anne Hathaway was great, becoming one of the most loved on-screen couples ever seen together.
It’s Streep, in a role that lends considerable gravitas to this otherwise forgettable afterlife comedy, playing an upright woman on trial for cowardice, who nets Golden Globe and Academy Award nods for her trouble.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman could be very easily a sentimental, self-congratulatory movie, but Streep elevates the material through her truly outstanding performance as Clarissa from The French Lieutenant’s Woman book. Clarissa transforms cliches from its pages into truth – making this tale about an ordinary middle-aged housewife who discovers her passion again into an emotive drama.
2. The Iron Lady
In the film, Meryl Streep played former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Now, toward the end of her life, Thatcher is engaged in clearing out the remnants of her late husband’s estate while reflecting on a long career. The daughter of a Grantham grocer, Thatcher went on to unprecedented success as the first female leader of her nation—remaining in office 11 years until declining popularity forced her departure.
The movie shuttles back and forth between past and present, and it is difficult for a viewer to piece together a vivid image of Thatcher throughout the film, but through it all, director Phyllida Lloyd and writer Abi Morgan manage to capture various political views that characterized Thatcher’s tenure as PM: from the 1984-1985 miners’ strike to the 1982 Falklands War, which the film brings clearly into focus; her brutal ways of conducting business with rivals finally erased popular sympathy over time.
For Streep, the role of The Iron Lady was another triumph: one of 17 Oscar nominations and a second consecutive BAFTA award for Best Actress. In this role, Streep showed that a woman could once again pierce through the male-dominated politics to leave her mark upon history.
3. The Bridges of Madison County
It stars Streep and Liam Neeson — who, at that point in his career, was still primarily known for his stoic ponytailed character — as suburban parents of Edward Furlong, who accidentally kills his girlfriend, played by Margaret Haines. Unfortunately, this movie has no focus, ending abruptly with an unrelated courtroom scene at the end.
It is about Robert Kincaid, a famous photographer working for National Geographic, who arrives at Francesca Johnson’s farm in 1965 to take pictures of the historic covered bridges. He becomes embroiled in an illicit four-day romance that changes both lives irrevocably.
The quiet, potency-driven performance as Violet cemented Streep into the acting world, with her fiery anger brewing to burst in this performance. It’s completely channeled through every cell in her body that Streep is able to make a feeling of anger so that Violet comes across as both funny and sorrowful. This movie is absolutely necessary to see, sincerely, because it represents how greatness is supposed to be.
4. Doubt
It was a combination of director Clint Eastwood and writer Richard LaGravenese that wrestled this Louisa May Alcott classic into such an intimate film, making Meryl Streep a contender for Best Actress Oscar, although Susan Sarandon took the prize. To this day, though, Streep remains as one of her finest performances committed to screen.
Doubt is an intense drama of skepticism and suspicion within a small Catholic parish and school in the year 1964. Having its setting in that very year, Principal Sister Aloysius Beauvier gets into trouble with Father Flynn, who has been accused by her of having inappropriate relations with young children at their Catholic School.
The depths and complexity this film contains set it worlds apart from most others, which would try to whittle down contentious issues to some sort of core values. That confrontation between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn is loaded with many religious, cultural, and political undertones, yet the dark subject matter never turned into misogynist rhetoric or misguided MRA diatribe, nor did it lose its stamina with powerful performances from Amy Adams and Viola Davis to bring this incredible film to life.
5. Mamma Mia!
Streep was cast as Donna in the movie version of Mamma Mia!, helping out a talented creative team who lets the magic of ABBA live once more. Sure, many critics panned its fluffy plotline, but Mamma Mia! has turned into a gargantuan blockbuster success and now holds the 10th longest run-time on Broadway or Vegas production history.
For this Irish drama, in which Streep played the eldest of the Mundy sisters as she struggled to take care of her dementia-afflicted brother in 1930s Ireland, she earned a nomination for her performance. She makes a rather joyless auntly figure come alive with a nice quiet intensity that makes the character both believable and endearing.
Streep was more or less an overnight sensation as one of Hollywood’s premier actresses after making her film debut with Amadeus. Since then, she has been seen in a spate of critically acclaimed projects, from Adaptation and The Hours to Doubt, Julie & Julia, It’s Complicated, and Florence Foster Jenkins. The Prom is already in line for release—a story of a troupe of high school musical performers trying to help an out gay teen—and Don’t Look Up, an emotionally charged melodrama about an American narcissistic president.
6. Hope Springs
Streep has never been one to err from taking a risk with her work, and in this fanciful comedy, she plays Yolanda Johnson, part of a country singing sister duo in an imaginary town. All the flirtation and sweet perfidies between her and Garrison Keillor make it wonderful, radiating underdog spirit resilient against life’s setbacks.
Reuniting with The Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel, she plays Kay, the plain wife who bullies her gruff husband, played by Tommy Lee Jones, into attending a couples counselor, Dr. Sam, played by Steve Carell. Despite the corny premise and a few missteps, this film features genuinely kind-hearted comedy as it gives new revelations on middle-aged marriages.
In a great dramatic performance, Streep portrayed Mary Margaret Case, a widowed Catholic school principal who disapproves of a priest’s attachment to a black altar boy in John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. An Oscar nomination was the single assurance—though Kate Winslet managed to take home the golden statue for The Reader.
7. Silkwood
Streep plays the role of Karen Silkwood, a factory worker at Kerr-McGee, who becomes increasingly concerned about safety violations. Though some may find that the movie is much too stark in its gritty and realistic portrayal of factory life, Streep more than makes up for it in her unforgettable performance, from pounding time cards with seamless ease to making sure colleagues have been exposed to harmful levels of radiation.
She catches this anger of a real-life person without turning Norma Rae into a figure of a big villain. It is a performance accomplished and assured, showing Streep’s characterization skill.
There is no way another actress could play this part as well, and the rest of the cast turns in outstanding work in their own respective roles. Shame this film doesn’t get more exposure.
8. Heartburn
Nora Ephron’s 1986 comedy, with Meryl Streep and that caustic portrait of marriage-and-infidelity, was one of the darker offerings within her canon. Based on Ephron’s brilliantly biting Roman a Clef of the same name, which she wrote after her divorce from Carl Bernstein of Watergate, Rachel Samstat is an NYC food writer who marries Mark Nicholson, a powerful Washington political columnist, played by Jack Nicholson.
Heartburn is etched into my memory as being the most intelligent of 1980s comedies, probably because of its sharp script and great cast: Liam Neeson, back when he sported that sensitive ponytail and didn’t punch wolves in their faces every other film he made. Cuttingly funny, it’s a bittersweet dissection of love and marriage that endures.
In this 1989 Best Picture winner, Streep was positively at the top of her form, co-starring alongside Robert Redford as a woman fighting for the love of her daughters. Admittedly, the movie doesn’t stay out of focus, most especially due to its rather slightly too obvious message, but it’s held together with some great acting by Meryl Streep as Cathy, the mother/daughter relationship counselor.
