I’m reviewing this a little late, and on the second viewing, because Fox Searchlight did provide a screener for my consideration back in December, but did not provide audio description.It was hard to rally behind this musical historical drama without the visual context, so I just didn’t review it. thanks to the powers at Disney Plus, I can now testify. This film, which features Amanda seyfried’s best performance in a movie, is just fine. it is fine.
Mona Fastvold, who helped her partner Brady Corbett push The Brutalist to Best Picture glory a year before, is now taking control. They certainly do have a style together that is not widely different depending on who is behind the film, though Ann Lee feels like a bleak, darker, depressing feature, which is surprising considering the subject matter in The Brutalist. Ann Lee (Seyfried) is the de facto founder of the Shaker movement,a branch of Christianity that believed heavily in celibacy. we see her life from being very young, to rising up and being married, to being locked away and experiencing God’s message to her.
She leaves her mental hospital with the fortitude of a prophet, and she begins to gain a following, including her brother (Louis Pullman), and challenges societal norms and becomes a female pastor at a time when that was illegal and frowned upon. So the Shakers will end up hopping on a boat to experience the religious freedom of America.
The music here is gorgeous, and while I would have a hard time picking out just one song, I’m surprised at how ignored this film was in the craft categories. Production Design, Costume Design, score, and Sound all feel like things Ann Lee could have easily picked up, yet along with all other Fox searchlight titles, walked away with nothing. for Production Design, it is a very specific film, historical in nature, that drifts across time periods and continents. In Costume Design, again, a period drama showing the contrasting styles of the shakers with their naysayers. Daniel Bloomberg’s score has a rabid pulse to it, a beat and sense to it, which supports the foundation of the Shakers, with these reworked hymns providing the sung songs throughout. And, for Seyfried, who is typically cast in musicals too big for her voice, this folksy style is right up her alley. The lilting voice works here.
But, it isn’t all just shaking its groove thing. Ann Lee is not a warm, inviting film. it feels cold at times, creating an experience not readily relived. it also supports Seyfried rather well, but the supporting cast is so thin despite actors like Tim Blake Nelson, Thomasian McKenzie, and Christopher Abbott. It’s an ensemble film that feels like faces in the crowd supporting one powerful performance.
Mona may not have directed something on the same level as the brutalist, but she shows a lot of promise and talent here. There’s a lot of craft, but I’m not sure the film is nearly as interesting and compelling as it wants to be, and a lesser actress in the role would have killed this film. The audio description did change my feelings from being a soft Rotten, to a soft Fresh. I did end up appreciating the choices and craft of certain sequences, and the descriptions of the designs of the costumes and locations added a lot.
I’m willing to testify this is Seyfried’s best work in film to date. her maturity, calmness, and determination carry an uneven film worth a watch, but perhaps not a second.
Fresh: 6.6/10
