I've been attending the Toronto International Film Festival for over a decade now, and even through the pandemic, the festival has always managed to be a beacon of what's to come in the film industry. Occurring every September, the festival typically heralds the marquee titles and awards-worthy films we'll be talking about through the end of any given year. In 2023 I thought for sure that would include Lee, the part war-time epic, part biopic about the WWII photojournalist Lee Miller, an American who fought her way onto battlefields to document the atrocities of that World War.
Starring Kate Winslet as Miller, the world premiere at TIFF last year was understated to say the least. With the film industry still largely on strike, the festival was absent A-list stars like Winslet to promote their projects, and for several months after the premiere I waited for news of its acquisition for eventual release in the U.S. Now, a year later, Lee finally makes its way to cinemas and I'm afraid will go largely unnoticed and under-appreciated.
Directed by Ellen Kuras, an acclaimed cinematographer making her feature film directorial debut, the film is based on Miller's son's writings recounting her work during the war (adapted by Liz Hannah, Marion Hume and John Collee). Winslet is at a career best as a woman determined to have her seat at the table, as we'd say today, a woman of undeniable ambition and indomitable spirit, and it's inspiring to watch her pursue the truth through the lens of her camera.
Miller was born in 1907 and in her twenties she was a model for Vogue and other productions; the film's opening scenes introduce us to this carefree version of Miller and her friends, including Marion Cotillard as Solange D'Ayen and Noemi Merlant as Nusch Eluard. In a voiceover provided by Winslet (more on that narrative device in a moment), we learn that Miller is growing tired of her free-wheeling days and discussion quickly turns to politics and impending war over a liberal (and not entirely clothed) picnic where she first meets future spouse Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård). But this glimpse of the idyllic countryside is just that, as much of the film is set in war-torn Europe as Miller sets out for the front as a war correspondent for British Vogue (whose editor, Audrey Withers, is played by the great Andrea Riseborough).
What follows is an illuminating portrait of a woman of conviction and the hurdles she clears to do the job she is born to do, a ten year stretch of the most noteworthy years of a largely impressive life over all. Alongside fellow journalists including Time's David Scherman (Andy Samberg), Miller finds herself in some of the most dangerous and noteworthy moments of the war, Karus utilizing many of Miller's real photographs as the propulsion fueling the plot. Like the day she and her fellow photojournalists found themselves in Hitler's abandoned apartment and she brazenly (and cheekily) disrobed in order to take a defiant photo in his bathtub.
Miller was not interested in dry, shallow snapshots of the world around her, especially when she was witness to the atrocities of war. She insisted her photos delve deeper into the truth, capture the difficult narratives many in the media were afraid to document. More than once, Miller is willing to go further than editor Withers is, the former pushing the latter to put decorum aside in order to get the real story of the war out to the public.
Lee employs at least one narrative device that ultimately distracts from the film's otherwise feircly compelling depiction of a trailblazer; Josh O'Connor plays a young journalist in the 1970s who is interviewing Miller for a potential piece, thus triggering Winslet's voiceovers as Miller recalls her escapades. Given the source material (and a certain reveal at the end of the film), this device makes sense...in theory. But it's easily the film's weakest element, distracting from the otherwise gripping moments when we are in the trenches with Miller.
Since launching onto the world stage in the global phenomenon that was Titanic, Kate Winslet has rarely made a misstep in a career that has now spanned decades on both the big and small screen (her work in The Regime is unparalleled). Lee is yet another bold choice that pays off, and one that gives a woman as singular as Miller her due.
Lee is now (finally) in theaters.
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