Lee

It’s 1977 and a prickly former Vogue and Vanity Fair model turned WWII photojournalist is being interviewed by Antony (Josh O’Connor, "Challengers").  As she slugs down gin and chain smokes, she demands to know just what she’s getting by showing him her photographs and telling him her stories, but relents when he agrees to tell her something about himself.  But that will come much later as each series of b&w stills reveal yet another incredible chapter in the life of “Lee.”

Laura's Review: B-

Concentrating on the years between 1937 and the immediate aftermath of WWII, writers Liz Hannah ("The Post"), Marion Hume, John Collee ("Monkey Man") might not have gotten to the core of Lee Miller if not for the committed performance of Kate Winslet, who worked for eight years to get this project made.  While the interview outline shapes the story (as well as providing an unexpected twist at film’s end) and the choice not to go the full biopic route is more modern, the film still feels old-fashioned and oddly unbalanced, Winslet supported by an Oscar winner (Marion Cotillard as French Vogue's fashion director Duchesse Solange D’Ayen), an Oscar nominee (Andrea Riseborough as British Vogue Editor Audrey Withers) and a César winner (Noémie Merlant as Nusch Eluard), yet two of these characters are barely defined.

After a brief prologue showing Lee being thrown back by an explosion during her first assignment on the front lines during the siege of St. Malo, director Ellen Kuras (Winslet’s “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” cinematographer, making her feature directorial debut) jumps back in time, Lee taking a snap of her artistic friends, all gathered at a Mougins villa in the south of France before gathering for a picnic during which most women go topless.  Although we can spot famous faces among the actors, little is done to distinguish who any of them are other than artistic hedonists.  It is but an opportunity for Lee to meet Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), their instant attraction apparent, their intellectual rapport established by each’s astute analysis of the other.  They fall into bed after four hours’ acquaintance and Penrose gets the unmoored Lee to settle in London (it is unclear if they ever marry and an earlier marriage of Lee’s is never mentioned).

Lee and Roland despair over Hitler’s rise, noting that ‘they’re all idiots, but dangerous’ and that ‘surely they can see what he is’ (sound familiar?).  Frustrated by her lack of work while Roland is consumed by the war effort (cue Lee acting as his model for a sexy camouflage body painting scene), Lee goes to see Vogue editor Audrey Withers, impressing the woman with her unorthodox snaps and the potential to team up against the talented but annoying Cecil Beaton (Samuel Barnett).  After photographing the effects of the Blitz, Lee sets her sights on the front and when British Vogue refuses to send her, American Vogue steps in.  She’ll meet another important man in her life when LIFE photographer David Scherman (Andy Samberg, appearing uncomfortable in the role, but gradually settling into it) holds up a mirror to light an evening shot for her, the two’s deep friendship evolving into one-sided, unrequited love.

Colonel Spencer (James Murray) does everything he can to get Miller to quit, throwing her out of his daily briefing and into a surgery tent, certain the extremity of what she will see will send her packing, but her tenacity and compassion for the wounded eventually convinces him to allow her into battle and we revisit the film’s opening scene.  Back home, Audrey champions her photographs, such as one of female undergarments drying in the window of an all female barracks, over Beaton’s objections.

Lee remains attuned to the plight of women during the war, standing up for a French woman accused of collaboration because of a dalliance with a German soldier, later horrified when she and several others are shorn of their hair in the town square.  The liberation of France will bring jubilation, but also an American GI trying to rape a local girl, something Lee stops by brandishing a knife.   She’ll meet up with Spencer again in Leipzig, allowed into Nazi homes to document entire families who have committed suicide, including a beautiful teenaged girl.  But nothing will prepare her for what she and Scherman encounter when they are the first journalists to enter Dachau, Lee’s unflinching photographs documenting horrors few knew or accepted as truth, but which she will be incredibly frustrated getting into print.  Her empathetic portrait of a young girl who has survived horrors will reveal one of the secrets Roland knew she kept hidden deep within.  Later, she and Scherman will bribe their way into Hitler’s apartment, now being used by partying officers, and Lee will wash off Dachau’s dust in his bathtub, Scherman snapping a controversial photo.  (They later learn Hitler and Maria Braun were committing suicide at the same time.)

“Lee” is often frustrating, reunions with friends who’ve suffered during the war less impactful because of their sketchy introduction, too much of Miller’s colorful background omitted.  But Winslet is a force, her focus on the Rolleiflex hanging around her neck intense, her determination to report the horrors she has seen, horrors which resulted in PTSD and alcoholism, unwavering.  She’s tough, sexy as hell and a strong reason to see this otherwise flawed film.

Robin's Review: B

Before World War Two, Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) was a top model at Vogue magazine. She gave that up to take the job at the other end of the camera as a fashion photographer. Then Hitler invaded Poland and she turned her camera to the war in “Lee.”

Tyro feature director Ellen Kuras, working with a story by Liz Hannah, Marion Hume and John Collee, brings us an old-fashioned biopic about a woman, Lee Miller, who I knew of but not about. The filmmakers take care of that lapse and, in the process, bring the femme combat photographer’s story to light.

Kate Winslet embodies the character of Lee with a dedication and focus that lends reality to the person. The model-turned-photographer knows what she wants from her life. Then, the war begins and she starts her career as a combat correspondent shooting pictures of the Nazi blitz of London. They are well received by her publisher.

This is where the war and Lee have a head on collision. She is denied a combat assignment by the Brits because she is a woman. She is reminded, though, that she is an American and goes over the heads of the British government. She journeys to the front.

Once there, though, she is denied admission to combat briefings – because she is a woman. The colonel in charge sends her to the field hospital and Lee, moved by the horror and compassion of war, begins taking pictures and is praised for the results. Establishing her credentials, her career takes off. But, not without obstacles.

The flow of Lee’s story is conventional and chronological. Along the way, we meet her model friends (Marion Cotillard and Noemie Merlant), her publisher, Audrey (Andrea Riseborogh) and her love interest, Roland (Alexander Skarsgard), and fellow photographer Dave Scherman (Andy Samberg). None, except Samberg, is really given the chance to become fully defined.

This is Lee Miller and Kate Winglet’s movie and the pair creates a real and emotionally complex, and ambitious, person. The backdrop of war is effectively shown, not just the terror of combat but its aftermath, too. This is brought into stark and horrific depiction when Lee and Dave enter a Nazi death camp.

That Lee, or anyone, can take such pictures of horror says volumes about dedication, skill and the ability steel oneself in the face of man’s horrific inhumanity to man. It makes me want to know more about the woman.

Roadside Attractions releases "Lee" in theaters on 9/27/24.