“The Testament of Ann Lee”
Few contemporary filmmakers have a keener eye for the weirdness and awe of American history than the husband-and-wife team of Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet. Their previous script collaboration, last year’s “The Brutalist” (which Corbet directed), told the story of a fictional architect with such weight and conviction that many presumed it to be a biopic of a real historical figure. “The Testament of Ann Lee,” which sees Fastvold stepping into the director’s chair, is a bit of a mirror image: there was indeed a real Ann Lee — she founded the Shaker movement — but her story is so strange and otherworldly that it often reads as fantasy. The movie doesn’t fit neatly into a genre and likely not to all tastes, but if like me you tune in to its offbeat wavelength, it will be one of the best films you see this year.
Amanda Seyfried plays Lee, whose Christian sect was dedicated to industriousness, equality, and complete sexual abstinence (this latter bit is why you don’t see many Shakers today). Following a string of visions and (possible) miracles, Lee sails from Manchester to New York, then spreads her peculiar and rapturous gospel to 18th-century New England. Locals often view the Shakers with suspicion, alternately accused of witchcraft (for their sometimes bizarre rituals), blasphemy (for embracing a woman as the second coming of Christ), and treason (for their resolutely pacifist beliefs). But Lee stays true to her mission and her followers to her, their faith in their leader unshakable.
Shakers were named for their rapturous shaking and gyration to shake their sexual urges out. Fastvold realizes this peculiarity on screen by turning “Testament” into a full-blown musical — Taylor Swift’s “Shake it off!” has nothing on these dance numbers. The characters rather spontaneously launch into dance routines which are at once elaborately choreographed and eerily naturalistic. The songs, largely adapted from old Shaker hymns by “Brutalist” composer Daniel Blumberg, are more textural than narrative, bubbling up from the characters as if they simply cannot contain their religious fervor (the best point of comparison might be the musical numbers in the 1973 folk horror classic “The Wicker Man”). When Fastvold’s Shakers burst into movement, even a non-believer will likely get swept up by the infectious energy.
Fastvold views Lee and her followers with the eye of a curious outsider, fascinated by this iconoclastic historical figure and her unconventional followers. Purported miracles, such as an incident in which an imprisoned Lee briefly grows a coat of thick fur and levitates several inches above the ground, are presented matter-of-factly, blending seamlessly into the already surreal spectacle of Shaker life. It’s a new classic in the genre of Old New England Weirdness; imagine a version of “The Witch” (2015) which never quite topples into horror, and you’ll have a decent idea of the tone.
None of this would likely work if Fastvold hadn’t found a leading performer as committed as Ann Lee herself. Seyfried is, of course, best known for such lighter fare as “Mean Girls” (2004) and the “Mamma Mia!” films, but she has quietly built up an alternate filmography of work with some of cinema’s most uncompromising auteurs: Paul Schrader in “First Reformed” (2017), David Lynch in “Twin Peaks: The Return” (2017), Atom Egoyan in “Seven Veils” (2023). “Ann Lee” is her best performance to date, at times almost frighteningly physical, yet shot through with such warmth and compassion that one can easily imagine joining her flock. Fastvold capitalizes on her star’s uniquely expressive face; Seyfried’s beatific grin, spread across the 70mm canvas, is as captivating as any of the New England vistas on display.
“The Testament of Ann Lee” is a film which defies easy categorization, and it remains to be seen whether general audiences will know what to make of it; the crowd at my preview screening frequently erupted into nervous, tittering laughter at scenes not intended as comedic. This is partly because Fastvold embraces the ambiguity and contradictions of her subject without falling into formula. “Ann Lee” is an extravagant, frequently sensuous film about austerity and celibacy, a story of faith and fervor told from a secular point of view. The result, as strange as it is, is utterly entrancing. Like Ann Lee herself, it will almost certainly attract devoted converts, who will subsequently preach its gospel to anyone who will listen. Praise be.
Playing in a limited 70mm run at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville.
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