"Forget the mists and mellow fruitfulness," said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph. "Autumn at the cinema is the season of ripening biopics with designs on the Oscars" – and this year, "Lee" is first to be plucked.
Starring Kate Winslet, it is a "handsomely upholstered account" of the life of Lee Miller, the American model-turned-war photographer who accompanied US forces as they advanced through northwest France and into Germany in 1944-45.
Painting events in 'the clunkiest of manners'
Winslet has been fighting to get this film made for nine years, and she is ideally cast; it's just a pity that her co-stars (Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard, Andy Samberg) are given much less to work with, and that the film doesn't do more to interrogate who Miller really was, or the nature of her work.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
I was sorely disappointed, said Alexandra Shulman in the Daily Mail. Winslet plays Miller as "a ball-breaking, badass woman, taking on all comers with a gruff quip and a flick of a cigarette"; whereas Miller was, in my view, far more "inscrutable and enigmatic" – an "icy sphinx who had been raped at the age of seven by a family friend", and who went into modelling after posing nude for her photographer father.
This film fails to capture her "essence", and paints events in "the clunkiest of manners, avoiding any of the style and nuance that made Miller exceptional".
An infuriating 'and then' film
It's also one of those infuriating "and then" films, said Kevin Maher in The Times – as in, "and then" Miller moved to France; "and then" she pivoted to photography; "and then" she photographed the liberation of Dachau.
Meanwhile, poor Skarsgård, playing her upper-class English husband, is "humiliated" by his attempt at an English accent; he sounds "less Noël Coward, more Dutch football commentator".
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
Codeword: December 7, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
Sudoku hard: December 7, 2025The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week
-
Wake Up Dead Man: ‘arch and witty’ Knives Out sequelThe Week Recommends Daniel Craig returns for the ‘excellent’ third instalment of the murder mystery film series
-
Zootropolis 2: a ‘perky and amusing’ movieThe Week Recommends The talking animals return in a family-friendly sequel
-
Storyteller: a ‘fitting tribute’ to Robert Louis StevensonThe Week Recommends Leo Damrosch’s ‘valuable’ biography of the man behind Treasure Island
-
The rapid-fire brilliance of Tom StoppardIn the Spotlight The 88-year-old was a playwright of dazzling wit and complex ideas
-
‘Mexico: A 500-Year History’ by Paul Gillingham and ‘When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy’ by David Margolickfeature A chronicle of Mexico’s shifts in power and how Sid Caesar shaped the early days of television
-
Homes by renowned architectsFeature Featuring a Leonard Willeke Tudor Revival in Detroit and modern John Storyk design in Woodstock
-
Film reviews: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ and ‘Eternity’Feature Grief inspires Shakespeare’s greatest play, a flamboyant sleuth heads to church and a long-married couple faces a postmortem quandary
-
We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
