Review: The Testament of Ann Lee – Shaking the habitual
Directed by Mona Fastvold
Starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Abbott, Stacy Martin, Thomasin McKenzie
6/10
If you’re currently after a film about a female Second Coming of Christ, this is as close as you’re going to get. The Testament of Ann Lee in some ways shares the qualities with last year’s The Brutalist, whose director Brady Corbet is the collaborating partner and husband of this film’s director Mona Fastvold. Although it has the same attention to detail in conjuring up its period setting, it certainly doesn’t have the intriguing momentum of The Brutalist, nor the right turns and surprises in characterisation.
Set in the mid-18th century, Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried) becomes enamoured with the Quakers’ religion, as well as with the claim that the second coming of Christ will be in the female form, as humanity is made in the image of God, and we’ve already experienced the male version—fair enough. With all the possessed dancing and shouting sinful confessionals they do, Ann and her posse start a new sect, the Shakers, who manage to travel across the Pacific to New York to preach the good word over there. Despite the sensual nature of these shakings, Ann vows a strict celibacy, as she claims that intercourse was the original sin and all humans must abstain from all sex—her poor husband!
One of the nicer things to be said about this film is that it’s certainly an impressive production, with all the sets, props, costumes, and accents all sounding so authentically of its time and place, and this does a great job at transporting you to this era. The music also sounds monumental, eschewing generic period-appropriate strings for something more foreboding, conjured up by Daniel Blumberg, who made equally fascinating and grand-scale music for The Brutalist. Along with this is the fact that this film is a musical. All the songs and dances these religious folks get into while being touched by the Almighty also come through in other parts of the film, an unusual choice for this kind of story, and one that is welcome half the time.
There’s so little propulsion for conjuring up the motivations for this woman’s odd life choices. There is the explanation that each of her four children died very young, but this family tragedy is relegated to merely being brought up in plot exposition, this maternal pain rarely being seen on her face.
There’s so much positive to say about such a film, with its engaging production and the committed leading performance from Seyfried. But for a film dealing with the possessed nature God has on the worshippers, The Testament of Ann Lee feels far too mannered for its whacky subject matter.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN