Lee Review

Lee Miller was a war photographer who worked for Vogue during the Second World War. Her story gets put to screen with Kate Winslet starring as this remarkable woman and serving as one of the film’s producers.

In 1938, Lee Miller was an ex-model and socialite who was a part of the artistic scene in France. When she meets Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), they fall in love and move to London just before the war. When the war erupts, Lee convinces Vogue to hire her and her subject matter was the home front. However, Lee wants to report on the frontline after D-Day and needs to overcome gender bias from the British and American establishments.

Lee was a film that spent many years in development and Winslet was so committed that she paid the crew’s salaries out of her own pocket for two weeks during pre-production. Lee was a film with all the trappings of a prestige film since it had an ensemble cast, and a collection of major people behind the scenes like screenwriter Liz Hannah (The Post), Roman Polanski’s regular cinematographer Paweł Edelman, and award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat. Plus, its director, Ellen Kuras, was an experienced cinematographer, working on films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Blow. It was a film that could have had awards aspirations, but it took a year for Lee to be given a cinematic release after its premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

On a technical level, Lee does everything right. It looked incredible with its sets, costumes, and cinematography as it portrayed the war and the horrors of the Holocaust. When Lee first entered the war zone it felt like being in the middle of combat. It was like modern classics such as Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down that used intense shaky cam and realistic visuals. It was brief this was being shown from a civilian’s point-of-view, with warfare being chaotic and overwhelming. When Lee and her journalistic partner David Scherman (Adam Samberg) arrive at the concentration camps they were horrified by what they saw, as any person would be if they came face-to-face with the evil conducted by the Nazis. It was awful to see the mass of dead bodies at the camps and in cattle trucks. This approach was blunt force trauma but it got the message across and it showed the Holocaust from an outside perspective.

Lee did gather a big-name cast. Winslet has proven herself to be a top actress and her commitment to the role was evident. She played a strong-willed woman who was not afraid to ruffle some feathers. Lee showed she had a sense of compassion, even with women who collaborated with the Germans, and seeing the frontline and Holocaust took a toll on her. She defied traditional gender roles, although the film did lean a little too hard in modernising some of these issues. The cast featured plenty of talent from the UK, France, and the United States, including Josh O’Connor, Marion Cotillard, and Alexander Skarsgård. The most notable cast members were Andrea Riseborough and Andy Samberg. Riseborough was a delight as Audrey Withers, the editor of Vogue and acted as one of Lee’s biggest allies. Samberg has been known for being a comedic actor so he got to show his dramatic chops, establishing since his character was Jewish and the horrors of the Holocaust confronted him.

Lee did have two major issues. The first was beyond Lee’s control since its general release came after Civil War, another war film about a female photographer. Civil War even namechecked Lee Miller and the main character in Alex Garland’s film was named after the famous photographer. Civil War had the added advantage of its unique selling point since it was set in near-future America.

The other issue was within Lee’s control. This was due to the film playing it so safely. This film didn’t take any risks or have any new insights. There have been plenty of other films that explored the Second World War, journalism, and the Holocaust. At times Lee felt like a condensed version of Band of Brothers since that TV series showed fighting in Normandy, the Allies discovering the Concentration Camps, and the immediate aftermath of the war. This made Lee more like an Oscar-bait movie than trying to be an important film in its own right. The narrative in Lee was lacking since it was jumping from event to event instead of telling a cohesive story.

Lee was a well-intended film about an important woman, and a lot of effort went into it. Sadly, it was hampered with the by-the-numbers storytelling.