From Lee to Titanic: Kate Winslet's Best Performances, Ranked

Lee is a biopic of Lee Miller, the legendary war photographer who started in the fashion business before being assigned to cover the Blitz for Vogue in the 1940s. If you’re curious about that period of history or are interested in stories about women (Jackie and Blitz come to mind) from that era, this might be up your street.

The movie was a big passion project for Winslet, who worked on it for nine years, at one point even paying the cast and crew's salaries for two weeks after funding fell through. 

The Holiday might not need an introduction. Nancy Meyers’ Christmas classic has been on repeat during the festival season for the best part of 20 years. Winslet plays a columnist in London who still holds a torch for her ex-boyfriend, so she decides to try a house swap with a movie producer in LA (Cameron Diaz). Festive, fish-out-of-water fun ensues.  

If you’re a fan of festive movies and Meyers' work (especially ones from that period, like It’s Complicated and Something’s Gotta Give), you will probably end up watching this at least once a year.

Speaking of unhappy housewives, Revolutionary Road seemed to pick up where Little Children left off (more on that in a moment)—so if you like that previous movie or other period pieces in the Winslet stable, or are keen to see Leo and Kate reunite ten years after Titanic, or are a fan of the great Michael Shannon, this is one for you.

Sam Mendes’s movie follows a seemingly perfect couple in 1950s suburbia—but once again, things are less perfect than they first seem… 

Long before directing Cate Blanchett as the iconic Lydia Tar, Todd Fields burst onto the Oscar scene with Little Children, one of many great melodramas in the Winslet canon and a movie for fans of early ‘00s suburban dramas like American Beauty.

Like most movies in that genre, Little Children concerns an idyllic community where things are not quite as perfect as they seem, with Winslet playing an unhappy housewife who has an affair. 

Heavenly Creatures is a great breakout movie for so many people. In a way, this movie gave us Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. It also gave us the great Melanie Lynskey and, two years before Sense and Sensibility made her a star, it gave us Winslet, too – so if you appreciate any of those things, we highly recommend seeking it out. 

The story is based on a grisly New Zealand murder case, where two teenage girls (played here by Winslet and Lynskey) killed one of their mothers, but Jackson makes something surreal and fairytale-like from the material. 

Mildred Pierce is a remake of a stone cold classic from 1941 starring Bette Davis that literally no one but Todd Haynes could have pulled off. Given the daunting task of filling Davis’s shoes, Winslet gives a marvellous performance as a single mother dealing with the sexist and classist societal structures of an earlier time. 

If noir melodramas from that era (Pierce, of course, but also movies like Double Indemnity) or Haynes’ period movies (like Carol or the exquisite Far From Heaven) are your thing, then this is a must-watch.

The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

Mare of Easttown did for Winslet what True Detective did for McConaughey—so if you’re a fan of that kind of gritty style and the kind of stories that really go for the dark underbelly of small communities (Sharp Objects also comes to mind), this is one you’ll want to see. 

The great thing about Mare is how much world-weary attitude Winslet brings to the role, especially when acting opposite the great Jean Smart. Despite the show’s heavy themes, the actors never let it become too solemn—if anything, it’s kind of a blast.

Sense and Sensibility is a period drama that even people who don’t generally like period dramas tend to enjoy—a decent comparison might be The Remains of the Day, or Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. It’s directed by the great Ang Lee, which should be all you need to know. 

After her eye-catching debut in Heavenly Creatures, this was the role that really earned Winslet her early fame. Her portrayal as Marianne Dashwood won her a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress and exceeded expectations to become one of the best Jane Austen adaptations of all time.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is iconic for many reasons: Charlie Kaufman’s unique screenplay, Michel Gondry’s creative flourishes, Jon Brion’s score, and Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet’s lovely central performances. For fans of any of their work (think Being John Malkovich or Be Kind Rewind) or similarly tactile indie movies from that time, it’s rightfully a classic.

As the slightly manic-pixie Clementine, Winslet’s performance suffers a little from the male gaze, but I think that’s mostly in keeping with the movie’s knowingly narcissistic approach. Like Joel’s fading memories, it’s a movie you’ll want to see again and again.