The Testament of Ann Lee

Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee undertakes the daunting task of dramatising the life of the Shakers’ visionary founder. Tracing her journey from Manchester during the Evangelical revival to her Atlantic crossing with disciples bound for New York, the historical drama musical emerges at once earthy and transcendent, soot-stained yet radiant with rapture.

At its centre is Amanda Seyfried’s magnetic leading performance as Lee. Childbirth scenes are rendered without euphemism – spread legs, gushes of blood, placentas laid bare – yet Seyfried makes them less spectacle than crucible. Her screams and her contorted body possess a rawness that hovers between documentary realism and supernatural possession. This same intensity suffuses her portrayal of Ann’s faith, conviction edging toward mania. On the storm-struck voyage to New England, she faces the thunder and heaving waves with unnerving steadfastness – her certainty in divine promise both stirring and frightening.

Fastvold’s working-class Manchester is painted in familiar strokes: smog, grime and alleys that echo Dickens on film. But this drab realism becomes the crucial counterpoint to moments of Shaker ecstasy. When disciples whirl in dance, the film shatters its own greyness; bodies spin in abandon, music swells, and what might seem eccentric on a laptop screen becomes, in the cinema, something close to transcendence.

The communal chants and hymns ring with rough-edged power, Seyfried’s voice carrying more conviction than in her earlier musical roles. At times, the production smooths certain songs into a Disney-like polish, stripping away the rough edges that give them bite. The music is at its most compelling when it lets the Shaker community’s raw, echoing voices surge unvarnished, carrying the full weight of devotion.

Not every moment lands: a scene in which Ann leads her followers in chanting “shame” at a slave auction feels awkwardly imported from another narrative, though Seyfried’s righteous fury nearly redeems it. Yet overall, The Testament of Ann Lee captures faith in all its instability – physical, unstable and deeply enthralling. Through Seyfried’s ferocity and Fastvold’s daring contrasts, the film accomplishes a rare feat in creating a vision that is at once transporting and entirely its own.

Christina Yang

The Testament of Ann Lee does not have a release date yet.

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