“Lee” – Multi-dimensional [MOVIE REVIEW]

“Lee,” about the incomparable Lee Miller, takes an interesting approach to telling her story. Too vast a landscape to cover, “Lee” uses the framework of a latter day interview to delve into her unique life. Always in the forefront, she was a high fashion model, artist, photographer and  groundbreaker. Her beauty and intelligence gave her entrée into the Parisian avant garde artistic community where she communed with poet Paul Eluard, Picasso and Man Ray, from whom she learned the art of photography and became immersed in surrealism. She was his student, then his lover and always his equal. Lee lived life full on, a leader, not a follower, in this heady bohemian circle.

Moving to London with paramour Roland Penrose, she transitioned from subject, as a model, to leader, as a photographer. She filled the pages of “British Vogue” with her work. With the advent of World War II, she lobbied successfully to become their war correspondent. She battled, sometimes successfully sometimes not, to be accepted in an arena where women were banned from combat zones. Teaming up with “Life” magazine correspondent David Scherman, whose admiration of her work helped grease some of the wheels of others’ reluctance, she gained some of the access she needed. Working for a British magazine, she found the rules and regulations of the British military to be highly restrictive. They refused to allow her to cross into combat zones. Eventually it occurred to her that her American citizenship might open up those closed channels. And they did, allowing her to shoot under the same circumstances as her male cohort. Her photographic work from the battle of Saint Malo graphically illustrated what was happening as the Allies tried to wrest control of that city from the Germans in 1944. It solidified her reputation as a fearless war correspondent and top rank photographer. 

“Lee” does a decent job of trying to reveal the many layers of Lee Miller, although it is doubtful that anything could adequately pay tribute to such an outsized character who crossed paths with the famous and infamous of her day. It would have been helpful background if the narrative glanced at least briefly at her time in the forefront of the avant garde. She was a supermodel before the term was coined and nowhere is it mentioned that her photographic eye was nurtured by Man Ray. She broke many glass ceilings, challenged most of the norms of her day and was unafraid to cross boundaries, both physical and mental. 

The cast is an international who’s who. Alexander Skarsgård plays Lee’s lover (and post war husband) Roland Penrose. Always watchable and sexy, whether a bad boy or good, he is, unfortunately, a bit of eye candy here. Andrea Riseborough plays Audrey Withers, storied editor in chief at ‘British Vogue” and Samuel Barnett is little more than a snarky scold as Cecil Beaton, a rival photographer at the magazine. French actors Marion Cotillard and Noémie Merlant add depth to the portrait of Lee’s coterie, but most of the rest of that group are merely cardboard mannequins with famous names attached. Andy Samberg, in a surprising dramatic role, handles the role of David Scherman credibility 

This was a passion project for star Kate Winslet. She was the driving force behind making the film and both its best and worst asset. As a positive, she got the story told. As a negative, she was the wrong actor for the role, despite her physical similarity to her subject. Lee Miller was a larger-than-life force. Winslet puts her in larger-than-life situations but then her affect is almost always negative, bland and without energy. This was a woman who seduced a generation of artists and knew no bounds. None of that surfaces in Winslet’s performance. Perhaps this interpretation was already set in the interview framework where an old Miller, worn, tired and clearly unhappy, begins the tale of her past. Whatever the problem, it lies at the feet of Winslet who is never able to make her character come alive despite all the exciting situations she was in. She plays a Lee Miller who is beaten down by circumstances making it difficult to feel the energy she had to have felt when breaking barriers and taking shots that few would have dared. She wasn’t alone in this. Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke-White were also on the scene, but this is rarified company indeed. Lee Miller was not forgotten, as might be implied in the film. Her many famous photographs live on. What is a shame is that more excitement couldn’t have been transmitted. The pacing of Ellen Kuras, the director, is flat. The screenplay was written by a panoply of writers, never a good sign when trying to hone a story. Neither the director, the many writers nor the star found a way to tell the tale with passion and excitement.

Nevertheless, even skimming the surface of Lee Miller’s story is interesting. It’s just, given the subject matter, it should have been so much better.

Opening September 27 at the Laemmle Monica and the AMC Century City 15.