Meryl Streep’s upcoming biopic about former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is already coming under fire, despite not reaching full release. ‘The Iron Lady’ tells the story of both Thatcher’s public and private life during and following her tenure as Prime Minister.

The Huffington Post reports that Norman Tebbit, a member of Thatcher’s cabinet and former Conservative Party head, had a strong reaction to the portrayal of Thatcher. “She was never, in my experience, the half-hysterical, over-emotional, over-acting woman portrayed by Meryl Streep,” said Tebbit, who also noted that Thatcher could be “difficult and demanding” but not to the extent that is offered in the previews for the film.

"I do not know whom the makers of the Meryl Streep film talked to,” Tebbit went on to say, “but certainly not me.”

One of Thatcher’s key PR advisors, Lord Tim Bell, doesn’t see “the point of this film,” and views it only as a money-making venture for Streep and its writers.
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"I have no interest in seeing it. I don't need a film to remind me of my experiences of her. It is a non-event... It won't make any difference to her place in history of the fact of what she did,” Lord Bell said.

Streep, not surprisingly, offers a different opinion about the final product, citing that she was “grateful” to take on the role of Margaret Thatcher. She did say, however, "I still don't agree with a lot of her policies, but I feel she believed in them and that they came from an honest conviction, and that she wasn't a cosmetic politician just changing make-up to suit the times. She stuck to what she believed in, and that's a hard thing to do.”

Thus far, critics of the film have praised Streep’s performance, though the jury’s out on the truthfulness of the film. A “sort of split decision for the admirers of the actress and those personally offended by the picture’s veracity,” says the Huffington Post.

The film opens January 13 in the United States.

Below, watch one of the trailers for ‘The Iron Lady’: