The story of American photographer Lee Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.
‘Lee’ is a biopic of the famed war photojournalist Lee Miller, a former model who found her way into photojournalism after her modelling career finished and took some of the most important photos of the Second World War, including some of the first images from concentration camps that proved the holocaust. It stars Kate Winslet in the leading role, and her tenacity as an actress is perfect for the role of Lee Miller, who was clearly a dogged and determined woman operating in what at the time was very much a man’s world.
The movie primarily follows Miller’s life from shortly before and throughout WWII, as she gets a job for Vogue magazine and enlists as a war photographer, driven by her desire to play her part in the war effort. The story is told through lengthy, detailed flashbacks, through a framing device that centers on an interview in her later years where she looks back on her life and the photos she had taken. In many respects this is quite a conventional biopic that hits the main beats of the genre, from the central character finding romance to the career she became famous for, and I felt the interview/flashback conceit didn’t really add much more than we’d have got from just following Miller at the time.
There is no doubt that Lee Miller was an extraordinary woman and Winslet’s performance is superb at getting at the heart of what made her tick, with a solid supporting cast made up of the likes of Alexander Skarsgård, Andy Samberg, Marion Cotillard and Andrea Riseborough. It is also interesting to see WWII from a slightly different perspective, given it’s a war that has been covered well so many times before in various movies. The closest contemporary to ‘Lee’ would be ‘A Private War’, which starred Rosamund Pike as the war reporter Marie Colvin, who reported from 21st century warzones, and I felt that movie was a little better in comparison, but ‘Lee’ is still worth seeing, particularly for Winslet’s performance and to learn more about this remarkable woman.
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Ellen Kuras
Starring: Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, Noémie Merlant, Josh O’Connor, Alexander Skarsgård, Arinzé Kene, Vincent Colombe, Patrick Mille, Samuel Barnett, Zita Hanrot and James Murray
'I have a purpose. If you think that it's some kind of blessing it's not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through.' Marty Supreme (2025) 