The Testament of Ann Lee
Amanda Seyfried gives the performance of a lifetime in Mona Fastvold’s bold, brave and bonkers musical drama.
Mother Mia: Amanda Seyfried
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
As a religious leader, Ann Lee was a unique figure in American history. Born in 1736 in Manchester, Ann was appalled by the suffocating ritual and inflexibility of the Church of England. She sought for a more inclusive and humane belief system, and when she and her brother William attended a Quaker meeting, she felt transformed. The leaders Jane and James Wardley rejected the pleasures of the flesh and believed in Christ’s Second Coming in female form. They also had a whole lot of shakin’ going on, a kind of mass hysteria which gave them their new name of ‘the Shakers’.
Following the death in infancy of her four children, and the sadomasochistic overtures of her husband Abraham, Ann joined the Shakers in disrupting a conventional church service. She was subsequently thrown into prison, where she refused food and drink for fourteen days and experienced visions that reinforced her belief in the Shaker principles. When she shared her epiphany with her fellow believers, they adopted her as their leader and renamed her Mother Ann. In their eyes, she was the embodiment of the female principal in Christ…
Arguably the strangest musical of the last decade, The Testament of Ann Lee has a hand-crafted feel to it, in keeping with the flavour of its theme. Punctuated by large, florid chapter headings, with colourful straplines, the musical drama proceeds from Manchester to New York or, in the words of one caption, they take ‘A Hop, Skip and a Jump Across the Atlantic.’ Of course, it is anything but and the Shakers almost get thrown overboard during one of their musical raves. Then, in New York, it’s a whole new world and they set out to establish a colony, building houses from scratch as they sing along to another showstopper, the film’s musical numbers very much drawn from the original Shaker hymns.
The world of Ann Lee and the times she lived in are captured with meticulous attention to detail and even if one doesn’t buy into the weirdness of it all, it is a profoundly visual accomplishment. Shot on original 35 film stock, the film certainly merits the much-abused term of ‘painterly’ and the scenes of craftsmanship, timber framing, furniture making and basket weaving are exhilarating to behold. The dialogue, too, is beautifully period-appropriate, scripted by the director Mona Fastvold and her real-life partner Brady Corbet. Indeed, anybody familiar with the work of Brady Corbet and his large canvases and sense of the unique, will eat this up with a ladle. It’s just unlike anything you will experience all year and should really be witnessed on the big screen (Brady Corbet’s last film, The Brutalist, was shown on IMAX).
Praise must also go to Amanda Seyfried, who gives the bravest and most committed performance of her career, seen here giving birth four times, being sexually abused and stripped naked by Americans who have no truck with minority groups. She’s also divested of make-up, masters an impressive Mancunian accent and sings six original numbers, which demand an entirely different approach from her pop-friendly delivery in Mamma Mia! She is, to borrow the cliché, a revelation. The film itself is so unique in its character and execution that it takes a large dose of open-mindedness to fully cherish its many pleasures. Furthermore, it grows in stature in the mind long after the final curtain.
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Viola Prettejohn, David Cale, Scott Handy, Jeremy Wheeler, Daniel Blumberg, Willem van der Vegt, Millie-Rose Crossley, Esmee Hewett, Jamie Bogyo, Lark White, Matti Boustedt.
Dir Mona Fastvold, Pro Andrew Morrison, Joshua Horsfield, Viktória Petrányi, Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet, Gregory Jankilevitsch, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Lillian LaSalle and Mark Lampert, Ex Pro Megan Ellison, Patrick Chu, Christopher Renteria, Tom Ogden, Diana Chen, Brantley Gong, Jesse Ozeri, Vincent Peone, Kyle Stroud, Zach Verdin, Dave Guenette, Scott Aharoni, Alihan Yalcindag, Sinan Eczacibasi, Saskia Duff, David Kaplan, Oleg Nodelman, Marcin Czernik, Claude Amadeo, Randal Sandler, Michael D’Alto, Chris Triana, Adam Paulsen, Michael Fowler and Zelene Fowler, Screenplay Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, Ph William Rexer, Pro Des Sam Bader, Ed Sofía Subercaseaux, Music Daniel Blumberg, Costumes Malgorzata Karpiuk, Sound Andy Neil, Dialect coach Tanera Marshall.
Annapurna Pictures/Kaplan Morrison/Intake Films/Mid March Media/FirstGen/Mizzel Media/Yintai Entertainment/ArtClass Films/Carte Blanche/Parable-Walt Disney Studios.
136 mins. UK/USA. 2025. US Rel: 25 December 2025. UK Rel: 27 February 2026. Cert. 15.
