This is a cleverly crafted story of a pivotal period in the life of Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, a war correspondent for British Vogue during World War II.
It starts in the South of France shortly before the onset of the war and shows Lee’s hedonistic lust for life amongst her artistic friends and it’s here where she meets her long-term partner and husband, Roland Penrose.
Lee had been a model for Vogue and Vanity fair but it’s her energy and drive to deliver the truth through the lens of her camera rather than at the end of it that the film focuses on.
For Kate Winslet this is a story that needed to be told and she puts everything into it, both as Producer and in taking on the role of Lee herself – using the knowledge gained from her research and in conversations with Lee’s son, Tony Penrose, she skilfully narrates the work Lee did for British Vogue during the war in London and then with the Allied front lines as they made their way to Berlin finally ending up in Dachau.
Lee is a true force of nature doing whatever it takes it along the way to get the job done, but we gradually start to see the heavy toll the images she captures begin to have on her both emotionally and psychologically.
Kate Winslet delivers a gritty and absorbing performance with solid support from Alexander Skarsgard as her husband and Andy Samberg as her brother-in-arms journalist David Scherman, giving us real insight into the passions and logic that drove Lee throughout the war.
It was only after Lee’s death that her son became aware of just who she was during those years and what she had gone through. He had often thought about bringing her life to the screen for everyone to share but it was only when Kate Winslet contacted him and they got to know eachother that he felt he had finally found the right person to tell her story, I couldn’t agree more.
