Director: Mona Fastvold
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Stacy Martin, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Viola Prettejohn, Jamie Bogyo, David Cale
Screenplay: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
137 mins. Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence and bloody images.

I get asked pretty often about how I deal with seeing movies that don’t interest me, and my response usually is that all movies have the ability to captivate, even ones that, on the surface, don’t seem to appeal to me. All movies can stir my interest, and I wash any expectations before I enter the theater. For example, a kind-of musical true story of the religious leader of the Shaker movement of Quakers in the 1700s doesn’t immediately draw my interest, but I opened myself up to the experience, and The Testament of Ann Lee is one of the most mesmerizing experiences of this or any year.

Set in the 18th century, the film follows Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried, Mean Girls), a devout young woman looking for guidance who comes across a fascinating group of devoted followers who get swept up by the power of their faith into rhythmic shaking and ecstatic chanting, and she’s quickly swept up in it all, journeying to America with the group and rising in their ranks to a leadership status. As Ann’s visions and religious fervor grows, and the various members look to her for leadership, she tries to protect them from those who do not understand their faith while living with the very rigid rules of their religious movement.

Something occured to me as I was watching The Testament of Ann Lee: I’ve never seen anything quite like it. That’s a rare feat following 150 years of recorded film to experience something that entrances and spellbinds and is wholly unique. It’s hard to call the film a musical though it features a number of musical moments, built of rhythmic dance and chants all choreographed to make it feel both improvised and organized, and the chanting/shaking sequences are among the film’s most enticing and powerful. If nothing else, this film is a testament to the power of cinema, the power of humans as both art and artist.

Amanda Seyfried is utterly hypnotic in the lead role, easily crafting a career-defining performance as Ann Lee. It’s not easy to embody a real-life character with extreme religious views that so contrast with today, and yet, Seyfried finds the humanity and relatable qualities of Ann Lee and brings her forth in such an uncompromising performance that needs to be more discussed this year. I’d love to highlight the rest of the cast, particularly Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick) as William, Ann’s brother who has his own secrets that are challenged by the rigidity of his faith, and Tim Blake Nelson (Captain America: Brave New World) as Pastor Reuben Wright, a religious leader swayed toward the Shaker movement.

Director/Co-writer Mona Fastvold (The World to Come) adds a specific intensity to the harsher parts of Ann’s life, specifically in the painful loss of her four children, none of which made it more than a year. Fastvold puts us in the middle of Ann’s painful labors, unflinching and direct and focused on the pressure to bring forth a child and the role of women in 1700s society. This directness is shown at odds with the important of Ann Lee as her role in the Shakers grows and evolves and likely shapes her visions of celibacy as a way to being closer to God.

There’s a mesmeric quality to the entirety of The Testament of Ann Lee that had me utterly possessed by its rhythmic movement. The film draws you in, takes ahold, and goes to a place that I’ve never really been. It’s a fascinating story but I can see it being a hard sell, so let me put it this way: this film has the same run time as Wicked: For Good. So when you plan out your multiple viewings of that film, maybe consider making one of them The Testament of Ann Lee instead. It’s not inherently the type of movie I’d be drawn to, but wash your expectations and embrace its allure.

4.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe