Lee
2023
***
Director: Ellen Kuras
Cast: Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Alexander Skarsgård, Josh O'Connor, Andy Samberg, Zita Hanrot, Noémie Merlant, Sam Waterston, Sadie Frost
In the early 1940s, Lee Miller is a photographer for the Vogue magazine in London. After D-Day, she decides to join the Allied forces in the frontline to capture the horrors of war through her lens. Her wartime pictures were rediscovered after her death in 1977, which transformed her into a feminist icon. Miller's story has been a long-time passion project for Kate Winslet, and she is predictably brilliant as Lee, who is not the most affable person in the world. There are a few poignant scenes, but otherwise this is a disappointingly conventional biopic, which is unable to get under the skin of its protagonist. The interview framing device (with a twist) is unnecessary. Based on Antony Penrose's 1985 book The Lives of Lee Miller.
