Lee (2024)

Fascinating viewing. 'Lee' is very well made and expertly acted. As others have noted, it's quite the thing that fellow 2024 flick 'Civil War' has a character inspired by Lee Miller, then this comes along with a plot directly about the incredible photojournalist. Kate Winslet portrays Miller supremely, not that that would ever be in doubt; she is excellent at every single moment of this near two hour film. About time this biopic was produced, it is one that does get dark but it's undoubtedly an important story to tell.

Kate Winslet turns in quite an effective performance here as the eponymous photographer who originally arrived in London to be with husband Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård) and to work for the formidable Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough) at "Vogue" magazine as a fashion photographer. With the rise of the Nazis seemingly unstoppable throughout continental Europe, Penrose spends more time on the war effort leaving her more and more determined to prove that she is every bit as capable as her male counterparts. Needless to say there's quite a bit of resistance to her participation in combat zones, but thanks to her own perseverance and an alliance with David Scherman (Andy Samberg) she is soon actively involved in wartime photography and by the end is visiting some of the most ghastly sites ever built seeing, at first hand, the truly stomach-churning atrocities left behind by a now defeated war machine that turned large-scale annihilation into an art form. Her story is being relayed from the comfort of her British home in the 1960s to a man whom we assume is just a journalist. Indeed his obvious nervousness and her antipathetic attitude towards him and his task seems to suggest she sees no value in her memories, but as we develop the threads of her life, we begin to sense that something more exists between her and this young man (Josh O'Connor) which quite neatly puts quite a lot of perspective on the choices made by a woman who probably did put career first. Through the characters of Solange (Marion Cotillard) and Nusch (Noémie Merlant) the film also attempts to put a little meat on the bones of the story of those who had to "co-operate" with their new overlords. Some willingly, some less-so and some, well they didn't live to tell. The production and battle scenarios aren't really so effective - maybe just bit too manicured, the script is a little dry and there's maybe just a bit too much of it, but Winslet shows here that she has plenty of capacity to take on a role that it would have been easy to shower with bravado, but instead she brings a more considered charisma to her portrayal of a woman whose bloody-minded courage provided for some of the most significant imagery of the Second World War. Imagery that even now makes your flesh crawl.

Lee is a giant neon sign of a film with 'Made-for-award-season' written all over it while screaming 'Look how amazing Kate Winslet is!' But sadly, it's not until the third act, when things turn chilling, that she finally grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. Then there's Andy Samberg. Yes, that Andy Samberg, who somehow waltzed into this movie and decided to give us a 'Wait, is this guy about to win an Oscar?' performance. At this point, even the Academy are probably like, 'Well, guess we gotta nominate him now.'

There are times when many of us feel compelled to pursue something for reasons that we don’t fully understand but that we can’t walk away from, either, no matter what the personal cost may be. So it was for former fashion model Elizabeth “Lee” Miller (Kate Winslet), who, after a successful career of sporting haute couture, became a battlefield photographer for the British edition of Vogue magazine during World War II. Admittedly, she could have enjoyed a life of luxury in her retirement, but she felt a strong need to fulfill a purpose, a decision that led her to willingly immerse herself in this dangerous venture, one in which her life was frequently on the line. However, in doing so, she captured some of the most iconic images of the war in Europe, the stories behind which are recounted and re-created in this engaging biopic from director Ellen Kuras. In chronicling Miller’s life, the film details the hard choices she made, both personally and professionally, as well as her drive to document the hard truth about a conflict for which the world didn’t always have ready access to news about, at least not in the on-demand way we do today. While the picture has a tendency to be somewhat episodic at times, it nevertheless presents a series of intriguing back stories behind a variety of incidents from the storied career of this unlikely but widely regarded journalist. This offering’s fine period piece production design effectively captures the differences between the two diverse worlds in which the protagonist lived – the elegance of high fashion and the gritty wartime landscape – backed by Winslet’s superb performance (a strong awards season contender, to be sure) and the fine supporting portrayals from an excellent ensemble cast, including Andrea Riseborough, Marion Cotillard, Samuel Barnett and a surprisingly effective Andy Samberg. These attributes aside, though, it’s somewhat mystifying how this release came and went from theaters as quickly as it did. “Lee” truly deserved wider attention than it received, but, thankfully, it’s now available for streaming. It takes courage to stick to one’s convictions in a time of combat, especially when the potential cost to oneself is as high as it was for Miller, but the world is better off for her valiant efforts in showing us what we might have missed but about which we all desperately needed to know.