Australian war photographer during World War II, Lee Miller, almost vanished into history until her son wrote a compelling biography about her. What makes the biography especially potent is that Miller never spoke about her war exploits; her son had to dig up the evidence. The new biopic (a truncated one covering from just before the war to her famous photographs for Vogue revealing the horrors of Buchenwald), Lee, harnesses a spellbinding, intense performance by Kate Winslet to turn yet another dull “true story” into a mix of wartime excitement, Holocaust revelations, and meditation on the nature and power of photography. And the three writers, plus the director, employ a cunning “meta” device to highlight Lee Miller’s shell shocked reluctance to look back. Lee is a timely, clever, powerfully acted movie that delivers far more than its humdrum trailer portends.
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