Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister, was a fright herself, and in the course of Lezli-An Barrett’s Business as Usual a trade union striker wears a Maggie fright mask! Not a perfect film, this, but a captivating one, and with an exceptionally fine performance by Cathy Tyson as the chain boutique employee whose claim of sexual harassment launches the strike once her manager, played by Glenda Jackson, no less, is discharged for supporting the claim. Jackson, besides winning two Oscars and two Emmys, was a Labourite elected to British Parliament four years after Business as Usual, and more recently she has been a vocal critic both of Tony Blair’s sell-out of the Labour Party to the center-right and of the Iraq War.
Dennis Grunes 