I was starting to worry about Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee,” a polarizing song-and-dance musical—if you even want to call it that—which screened at Venice and TIFF. It had no distribution—until just a few weeks ago. That’s when Searchlight Pictures secured North American rights to Fastvold’s film.
A trailer has now been released for ‘Ann Lee,’ and know what? It makes me want to see it again. It’s gorgeously shot and choreographed. Too bad the story being told is razor-thin, lacking much depth to engage you with the characters fully.
At Venice, I found it to be a puzzling spectacle with thin plotting that mostly revolves around its musical numbers. The “songs” are more like one-phrase chants, and the dancing is more like twitching and convulsing. The story isn’t very well fleshed out, and lacks character development, but whenever the film suddenly hops into the next musical number, you’re utterly transfixed.
Searchlight is planning a limited theatrical release on Christmas Day. Good luck to all involved with this one. What’s the game plan here? Searchlight has a thin awards slate this year, with only “Rental Family” and “Is This Thing On?” as its other possibilities. Amanda Seyfried is being pushed hard for Best Actress. I don’t think the film stands a chance at a Best Picture nomination.
Starring Seyfried and centering on the titular woman who founded the Shakers movement and was proclaimed by her followers as the “female Christ.” Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”) co-wrote the screenplay with Fastvold. I called ‘Ann Lee’ “Venice’s Most WTF Movie,” Critics seem split on a love-it-or-hate-it train when it comes to this one. Then again, that 77 on Metacritic hints at plenty of admirers.
It’s not just critics and moviegoers who are split on the film — I was told it was passed over by such noteworthy festivals as Telluride and NYFF. There was also a rumor that Cannes rejected it, but I couldn’t confirm or verify that. Instead, the film went on to premiere at Venice, where it failed to win any awards from the jury.
The good news is that Fastvold’s film has its champions, was made for under $10M, and will likely entice some adventurous arthouse moviegoers to check it out.