'The Testament of Ann Lee' Review
- Juli Horsford
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 01/23/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Biography. Drama. History. Musical.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures.
The Verdict: A Maybe
Describing The Testament of Ann Lee in just one word is impossible. Even describing it in a few sentences is a tall task. It’s a movie that follows the life of Ann Lee, the daughter of a blacksmith who was born in Manchester in 1736. She becomes the leader of the Shakers—a religious sect whose core beliefs involve pacifism, celibacy, communal living, and a form of worship that involves quaking bodies, song, and dance.
From a young age Ann is drawn to God and as a young woman she finds a sense of belonging with a sect led by Jane (Stacy Martin) and her husband James (Scott Handy). It’s here that she meets and marries Abraham (Christopher Abbott). Together they have four children who tragically die in infancy. When she begins having revelations and visions directly from God, she’s elevated to a leader. Eventually she has a revelation that the group should go to America to form a sect there. They set up a homestead in New York and the followers come.
The Testament of Ann Lee is a bizarre and at times difficult watch. Writer and director Mona Fastvold (who also co-wrote 2024’s The Brutalist with her husband Brady Corbet, whom she writes with again here) has a singular vision for the movie that’s hard to ignore. She fully commits to the story, painstakingly showing Ann’s pain as she has unfulfilling sex that leads to babies who sadly don’t make it out of infancy. The grief and agony of losing four children isn’t just something sad on the screen—Fastvold somehow makes it feel entirely visceral as we watch Ann give birth over and over again only to have the same devastating result. And on the other side of the spectrum, Fastvold is unafraid to show us the joy and ecstasy of spiritual healing that Ann feels. The camera frequently moves through crowds of adults with limbs thrashing about and songs erupting from their mouths. These scenes (that show the Shakers in an act of worship) hum with an energy that’s palpable.
A big part of what makes this movie work is the brilliance of Amanda Seyfried who puts in one of her best performances (maybe even the best) as Ann Lee. She sings haunting and sweet Shaker hymns. She dances and contorts her body in ways that seem both spiritual and unnatural simultaneously. She captures the magnetism and other-wordliness of Ann and makes you believe in her, too.
Despite Fastvold’s, Seyfried’s, and the entire cast’s commitment to the story, it’s difficult to recommend The Testament of Ann Lee to anyone because it’s difficult to find a movie that resembles it. It is a wholly unique work from Fastvold that likely won’t kindle a desire for any repeat viewings. But the initial watch is impossible to look away from. Perhaps that means Fastvold was successful in arguably the most important way: capturing the true spirit of Ann Lee.
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