Kate Winslet

In Lee (2024), Kate Winslet lowers her camera and lets her face go still. The woman who has been refusing to soften a sentence suddenly looks as though keeping that up requires effort. We were moved by that small change, because it makes Lee Miller’s toughness feel necessary rather than automatic. Winslet is often cast as women who speak plainly and persist; we value her most when she shows what it costs them.

Her film career began with Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (1994), and Titanic (1997) made her an international star. That success did not keep her in large-scale productions. Independent films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) remained part of the work, alongside literary adaptations. Revolutionary Road (2008) reunited her with Leonardo DiCaprio under Sam Mendes. Her first full producer credit came with Lee, so its habit of explaining Miller rather than letting us watch her is especially frustrating.

Contagion (2011) makes better use of her within a tighter film. Steven Soderbergh gives her Erin Mears, sent to Minneapolis to trace contacts and left explaining infection rates on a hotel phone to men reluctant to listen. Winslet makes the persistence convincing without asking the film to stop and admire it. We believe she has work to get through, which is precisely what this brisk ensemble thriller needs.

Ellen Kuras, who shot Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directs Lee with a care that too often becomes dutifulness. Paweł Edelman’s warm pre-war light and flat wartime greens and greys give Winslet a sensible, unsurprising setting, while Andy Samberg supplies a welcome quietness beside her. Winslet’s stillness tells us more than dialogue that keeps explaining Miller. There is only so much she can do with scenes written as summaries. Try Lee for her, provided a performance can be enough for the evening.