Kate Winslet once again dazzles as the model turned war photographer Lee Miller in a far subtler film than first meets the eye.
It feels almost perfunctory to praise a Kate Winslet performance at this point. Like Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis, she has entered a rarefied pantheon of acting genius for which only the highest superlatives suffice. However, one should not take such brilliance for granted as she turns in another measured but utterly searing performance in Lee.
The film has been a passion project for Winslet, for which she serves as a producer, and tells the story of Lee Miller, the fashion model turned WWII photographer for Vogue. We first meet Lee lithely enjoying life on the French Riviera against a backdrop of Hitler’s rise to power, as she wishes to transition from muse to photographer. There, she is whisked off her feet by her future husband Roland Penrose (a dashing Alexander Skarsgård) before settling in London on the eve of war. Following the war’s outbreak, Lee yearns for purpose and becomes a photographer for British Vogue under the auspices of editor Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough). At first, British sexism bounds her to domestic work, but she soon negotiates a pass to the front lines of the Allied takeback of Europe and ventures into the Heart of Darkness of Nazi occupation.
Winslet is remarkable as Lee as she effortlessly embodies her stamina, grit, and sheer bravura of character. She brings a matter-of-factness to the role, possibly drawing on her own pragmatism as a performer willing to bare herself emotionally and physically in projects like Mare of East Town or The Reader. Yet, we also see the withering impact war takes as Lee’s façade cracks and Winslet plasters trauma across her face. There is even something mercurial and almost erratic about Lee, as Winslet hints at her true depths without revealing all. She makes Lee immediately resonant but impossible to pin down fully. The role marks another vital page in the annals of Winslet’s incredible career.
It could be easy to discard the remainder of the film as a shadow lurking in Winslet’s light and little more than a formulaic vehicle for her to shine. However, the film is subtler than that and marks an evolution in the well-worn field of war biopics. The film certainly possesses an initial stodginess as characters speak in long, overly articulated sentences. Even the lighting provides a slightly flattened and insubstantial aesthetic. However, as Lee ventures further into war the film itself matures, and its early flimsiness and soapy dramatisation give way to a raw evocation of human tragedy. Lee and the audience serve as witness to decaying bodies piled high, internecine village feuds, and the very depths of humanity. These images are made more visceral by the disarming nature of the film’s early conventionality, and their shift in tone mirrors a Europe so glib at Hitler’s threat descending into the harshness of his reality. The camera’s shifting gaze away from Lee onto the atrocities surrounding her likewise mirrors her shift from chic model to grizzled war reporter and ambition to be known for her photographs more than herself.
The film admittedly leans on some overworn tropes, and its framing device in which Lee is interviewed by a man (Josh O’Connor) feels particularly old-fashioned. This does lead to a narrative payoff but one which feels lacklustre and far too rushed to prove thematically worthwhile. It also wastes O’Connor’s talents in a merely serviceable role, a trend common across the film’s supporting cast. The fact that Marion Marion Cotillard, Andy Samberg, and others have signed up for smaller roles is a testament to Winslet’s planetary gravitas to draw in stars, but their characters are scarcely fleshed out. At its heart this is Lee’s story, and what a performance Winslet gives in telling it.