Career fluctuations (2012–2019)
Winslet said her workload in 2011 helped her overcome heartbreak from her divorce, and after completing work on Carnage she took a break from acting to focus on her children. A short part that she had filmed four years prior for the anthology film Movie 43 was her sole screen appearance of 2012, and it received the worst reviews of her career. Winslet also performed an audiobook recording of Émile Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin. She was reluctant to accept Jason Reitman's offer to star in his 2013 film adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel Labor Day, but agreed after Reitman postponed the production for a year to accommodate Winslet's commitment to her children. Set over a Labor Day weekend, it tells the story of Adele (Winslet), an agoraphobic single mother who falls in love with an escaped convict. Describing Adele's characterisation as having "more vulnerability than strength", Winslet found her a departure from the strong-willed women she typically played. A scene in the film required her to make a pie, for which she drew on her baking experience from Mildred Pierce. Reviews of the film were negative; Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly dismissed it as "mawkish and melodramatic" but credited Winslet for adding layers to her passive role. She received her tenth Golden Globe nomination.
The novelty of playing a villain drew Winslet to the part of Jeanine Matthews in the science fiction film Divergent (2014). Set in a dystopian future, the adaptation of Veronica Roth's young adult novel stars Shailene Woodley as a heroine fighting an oppressive regime headed by Winslet's character. She was pregnant with her third child during production, and her tight-fitting costumes had to be altered to accommodate the pregnancy. To maintain her character's intimidating persona, she remained aloof from her co-stars for much of the filming. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair compared the film unfavourably to the Hunger Games series, and found Winslet to be underutilised in it. The film grossed $288 million worldwide. A Little Chaos marked her return to the period film genre. Directed by Alan Rickman, it is about a rivalry among gardeners commissioned to create a fountain at the Palace of Versailles. Winslet's role was that of fictional architect Sabine de Barra, a character she believed had overcome extreme grief and hardship like herself. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian took note of the "emotional honesty" Winslet brought to her part, but criticised the implausibility of her role. Also that year, she read audiobooks of Roald Dahl's children's novels Matilda and The Magic Finger.
In 2015, Winslet reprised the role of Jeanine Matthews in the second instalment of the Divergent series, subtitled Insurgent, which despite negative reviews grossed $297 million worldwide. Her next film, an adaptation of the Australian gothic novel The Dressmaker, was described by the director Jocelyn Moorhouse as being reminiscent of the western Unforgiven (1992). Winslet starred as the femme fatale Tilly Dunnage, a seamstress who returns to her hometown years after she was accused of murder. She learnt to sew for the part and designed some of her own costumes. The project was filmed in the Australian desert and she found it difficult to wear couture dresses in the harsh weather. Despite disliking the film, Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times credited Winslet for underplaying her over-the-top part. The film emerged as one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time, but earned little elsewhere. Winslet won the AACTA Award for Best Actress.
While filming The Dressmaker, Winslet became aware of a forthcoming Steve Jobs biopic written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle. Keen to play Jobs's marketing chief and confidante Joanna Hoffman, she sent a picture of herself dressed as Hoffman to the film's producer. Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender in the title role, is told in three acts, each depicting a key milestone in Jobs's career. In preparation, Winslet spent time with Hoffman, and worked with a dialect coach to speak in Hoffman's accent, a mixture of Armenian and Polish, which she considered to be the most difficult of her career. The cast rehearsed each act like a play and filmed it in sequence. Winslet collaborated closely with Fassbender, and their off-screen relationship mirrored the collegial dynamic between Jobs and Hoffman. The film earned her some of the best reviews of her career, though it was a box-office flop. Peter Howell of the Toronto Star commended Winslet for finding "strength and grace" in her part, and Gregory Ellwood of HitFix thought she improved on Hoffman's characterisation. She won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress, and received her seventh Oscar nomination.
John Hillcoat's ensemble crime-thriller Triple 9 (2016) featured Winslet as Irina Vlaslov, a ruthless Russian-Israeli gangster. The critic Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post felt Winslet had failed to effectively portray her. Her next release of the year, Collateral Beauty, about a man (played by Will Smith) struggling with the death of his daughter, was panned by critics. Writing for Vulture, Emily Yoshida dismissed the film as a vacuous remake of A Christmas Carol and added that Winslet had "never looked more painted and tired". It was a modest earner at the box office. Winslet agreed to the romantic disaster film The Mountain Between Us (2017) to take on the challenge of a role requiring physical exertion. It featured her and Idris Elba as two strangers who crash land on an icy and isolated mountain range. They filmed in the mountains of Western Canada at 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) above sea level where the temperature was well below freezing. Winslet performed her own stunts and described it as the most physically gruelling experience of her career. Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times opined that the duo's charisma and chemistry enhanced a mediocre film.
Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel, a drama set in 1950s Coney Island, was Winslet's final release of 2017. She played Ginny, a temperamental housewife having an affair with a lifeguard (played by Justin Timberlake). She described Ginny as permanently dissatisfied and uneasy, and playing her proved difficult for Winslet, who experienced anxiety. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times disliked Allen's writing but credited Winslet for filling her "shabby character with feverish life". When asked during the film's promotion about her decision to work with Allen despite an allegation of child sexual abuse against him, Winslet chose not to comment on the filmmaker's personal life but said she was pleased with the collaboration. She would later go on to express regret over working with both Allen and Roman Polanski. In 2019, Winslet provided her voice to Moominvalley, an animated television series about the Moomins, and took on a leading role alongside Susan Sarandon and Mia Wasikowska in Blackbird, a remake of the Danish film Silent Heart (2014). Benjamin Lee of The Guardian dismissed it as "less of a film and more of an actors' workshop" and found Winslet miscast.
