The British biopics Lee and One Life have more than a few things in common. For starters, both are true stories about unlikely World War II heroes, and both movies premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2023.
Back then, there was Oscar buzz for Sir Anthony Hopkins in One Life based on Barbara Winton’s book about her father “If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton” (2014). Directed by James Hawes, the film follows an English stockbroker who helped bring hundreds of Jewish children to the U.K. from German-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939.
Because of his modesty, Nicholas “Nicky” Winton’s good deeds go unnoticed until he’s reunited with the refugees he saved (and their offspring) on the British TV show That’s Life! (1973-1994). As such, the drama bounces between scenes of the 79-year-old Winton (Hopkins) in 1988 and him as a young man (Johnny Flynn) working with his mum (Helena Bonham Carter) and Kindertransport humanitarian Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) to rescue nearly 700 souls.
Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake’s straightforward screenplay leads to a moving movie thanks to its powerful message and Hopkins’s poignant performance. Like his BAFTA and Academy Award-winning turn in Florian Zeller’s The Father (2021), the gifted actor emotionally conveys a universal humanity.
Yet with the exception of picking up the Cinema for Peace Dove prize in Berlin, One Life has been all but forgotten this awards season. Due to an all too limited release in March 2024, the film was deemed ineligible by the Academy. Plus, a marketing backlash for playing down the story’s Jewish element didn’t help. Consequently, Hopkins missed out on deserved Best Supporting Actor nominations from motion picture organizations.
Kate Winslet has fared better with Lee, making BAFTA’s long list as well as nabbing Best Actress nominations from the Golden Globes and AACTA despite giving a somewhat stilted portrayal. The English actress is undeniably talented — she won an Oscar for The Reader (2008) and should have won for Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Steve Jobs (2015) — but seems miscast as an American in Paris.
Apparently, this movie took eight years to make which explains why Winslet looks eight years too old to play Lee Miller in her 30s during the 1940s when the former model worked as a war correspondent throughout Europe.
As a photojournalist for Vogue magazine, Miller documented the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the horrors of German concentration camps. After wiping the Dachau mud from her boots on Hitler’s bath mat, she had the media savvy to doff her army fatigues and get into the dead dictator’s tub for a brash photograph taken by her colleague David Scherman, played by a surprisingly serious Andy Samberg.
More surprising is the movie’s uninspired imagery considering it’s about one of the most innovative photographers of the 20th century and is directed by award-winning cinematographer Ellen Kuras. Unlike her vivid collaborations with Winslet on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and A Little Chaos (2014), Kuras fails to filmically convey the main character’s vision.
This is especially confounding since Miller’s eyes (and glass tears) were made famous in the photograph “Larmes” (1932) by her jilted lover Man Ray. Unfortunately, the biopic misses the obvious opportunity to juxtapose Miller’s time as a pioneer Surrealist with her encounters of the truly surreal crimes men in power commit.
Instead, the movie mentions artist Man Ray once in passing, focusing more on Lee’s less interesting second husband, British art collector Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård). Meanwhile, Andrea Riseborough and Marion Cotillard make the most of their supporting roles as editor Dame Audrey Withers and journalist Solange d’Ayen, respectively.
Time is also spent on an elderly Lee recounting her war experiences to a nameless young man (Josh O’Connor). This setup leads to a lot of unnecessary exposition from old Lee who is disheveled, jaded, and drinks heavily due to PTSD. The trouble is Winslet plays young Lee the same way.
Equally disappointing is the reveal that the man she’s talking to is her grown son who imagines the conversation after discovering her photographs in the attic. During a climactic scene, he tells Lee she was a good mother. Wait, what? That’s the film’s takeaway? That the legacy of this brilliant artist and brave photojournalist is determined by her mothering skills?
If Liz Hannah, John Collee, and Marion Hume didn’t solely base their script on the book “The Lives of Lee Miller” (1985) by Miller’s son Antony Penrose, they could have created a more well-rounded biopic and a better vehicle to go the distance this awards season. As it stands, Winslet is poorly armed to win against actresses with stronger turns in flashier films and weaker performers backed by high-financed campaigns. Of course, the real losers are viewers who aren’t given a clear picture of the extraordinary Lee Miller.
