The Testament of Ann Lee Review: Amanda Seyfried is (Maybe) the Second Coming of Christ in This Extraordinary Biopic
This thrillingly iconoclastic musical – from the makers of The Brutalist – tells the story of the leading prophet of the 18th-century Shaker movement, who preached celibacy, rejected conformity, and demanded equality. An extraordinary woman, shuffled off into the margins of history, is gifted ecstatic new life in The Testament of Ann Lee. And, best of all, it's a musical – of shuddering, percussive breaths; the yowl of the electric guitar; and the soft, vibrating thuds of hands smacking flesh in self-soothing repetition.
A Vision of Equality and Pacifism
Together, they tell the story of Ann Lee, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried, the prophet of the 18th-century Shaker movement. Her belief that she was the second coming of Christ offered a vision of equality of gender and race, of pacifism and community. As a film, it's both faithful and thrillingly iconoclastic. It revives the tradition of painted backdrops, alongside William Rexer's rich cinematography on 35mm film stock, while reinterpreting Shaker worship, songs, and dances that varied between uncontrolled emotional outbursts and symbolic gesture, through a modern, abstract style by composer Daniel Blumberg and choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall.
The Creative Manifesto of Mona Fastvold
You could, potentially, define all of this as the creative manifesto of writer-director Mona Fastvold. It guided her beautiful rendering of a sapphic love story in The World to Come (2020), as well as her co-writing work on her partner Brady Corbet's films, namely The Childhood of a Leader (2015) and last year's The Brutalist. Corbet, in turn, has a co-writing credit on The Testament of Ann Lee. But here, it feels particularly suited to its subject.
Ann Lee's Life and Convictions
Ann Lee, born in 1736 in Manchester, initially joined the Wardley Society, commonly known as the Shaking Quakers, for their frenetic, rhythmic way of worship. It was their belief that God would return in the form of a woman. Lee pronounced herself as that woman. Married to a blacksmith, Abraham Standerin, played by Christopher Abbott, she had lost four children in infancy, and began, in turn, to preach that fornication was the sole cause for humanity's separation from the heavenly. Celibacy was the only route.
Fastvold, wisely, presents Lee's convictions as stemming from two potential (and not necessarily competing) realities: that she may have been asexual or otherwise sex-repulsed, and that she undoubtedly carried immense trauma from the loss of her children. It's a deliberate ambiguity that doesn't overly assume Lee's motivations while making room for a profoundly moving exploration of the ways people seek to mitigate pain, and the immense relief that can be found in like-minded community.
Amanda Seyfried's Fearless Performance
Amanda Seyfried opens herself up fearlessly to that potential, those fawn-like eyes of hers receptive to every emotion vibrating around her. She has exactly the kind of face you'd want to confess everything to – in Lee's wake, the Shakers swelled to 6,000 followers. Now, there are only three. Fastvold circumnavigates the lack of historical evidence of Lee's life by building on what is known via compassionate imagination.
Historical Context and Persecution
The Shakers were staunchly abolitionist, believed that men and women should share in equal authority, and refused, even under threat, to swear loyalty or take up arms during the American Revolution. How, then, has history treated those who rejected conformity in pursuit of a better tomorrow? In one bleak scene, Lee's husband joylessly spanks her during sex because he saw it depicted in a book – it's a perfect contrast between what it means to unquestioningly follow doctrine and have the conviction to seek out one's own moral path.
A Journey to America and a Message of Hope
In the face of persecution and incarceration, Lee and her followers, her brother William included, sailed from Liverpool to New York. And, much like The Brutalist, The Testament of Ann Lee discovers an America founded on apocalyptic principles, summarised by the woeful declarations of another local preacher, Pastor Reuben Wright, portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson. What Lee's word presents to him and his congregation is hope. And this, an unexpectedly radical film about her life, offers us some of that same hope, too.
Directed by Mona Fastvold, starring Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Abbott. Certificate 15, 137 minutes. The Testament of Ann Lee is in cinemas from 27 February.
