"Lee" starring Kate Winslet

Last night we watched Kate Winslet's extraordinary performance in "Lee", the story of model turned war correspondent and photographer Lee Miller. Director Ellen Kuras's film depicts Miller's harrowing journey from her idyllic pre-war days in France, as Hitler's rise begins to cast a shadow over her circle of friends, to a devastated Germany in the aftermath of World War II. We see just what those years do to her, to the people she cares about, and to the people of Europe more generally, as a conversation with an older, broken version of Miller frames her story. The later scenes are no less heartbreaking because the viewer knows going in what horrors history has in store for the character.

In a "60 Minutes" interview, Winslet talks about how important it was to her performance that she had learned how to use a near-perfect replica of Miller's medium-format Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera. Indeed, Winslet's character never fumbles. Lee Miller's attention was riveted on her subjects as her hands expertly operated the camera. My attention was riveted on Winslet as Lee Miller.

Highly recommended.