The Testament of Ann Lee review

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE: 

AMANDA SEYFRIED SHINES IN AMBITIOUS BUT OFTEN MEANDERING EPIC MUSICAL-DRAMA! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee

 

            Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Les Miserables (2012), The Housemaid) brings the real-life Shakers founder to the screen in The Testament of Ann Lee, the new film written and directed by Mona Fastvold (The Sleepwalker, The World to Come) and co-written and produced by Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader, Vox Lux, The Brutalist). Aside from seeing the trailer a few times, I came into this somewhat cold, my knowledge of Ann Lee and the Shakers is very thin so I’m not sure how accurate this portrayal or film is. 

            The movie looked interesting from what I saw from the trailer and poster, I had never seen any of Fastvold’s previous projects not counting her producing collabs with Corbet and Seyfried clearly had the best 2025 as she was not only in this but also The Housemaid which came out recently. Well, I can proudly say that Amanda Seyfried is easily the best part of Testament of Ann Lee because the film itself is pretty standard and at times tedious. 

            Yeah, I didn’t really fall in love with this film like a lot of other people did, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad movie either. There are some very impressive things about it in terms of the cinematography and production design and various story elements that can be quite fascinating, but this film drags a lot and can easily be trimmed down in the runtime department. 

            The film is set in 18^th century England and chronicles the life of Ann Lee (Seyfried), the founding leader of the Shakers religious sect. Ann was a woman who preached gender and social equality and was revered by her followers during her quest to build a utopia with all the ecstasy and agony that came with it. 

            The film also stars Lewis Pullman (Bad Times at the El Royale, Top Gun: Maverick, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Ann’s brother William Lee, Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace, Jojo Rabbit, Last Night in Soho) as Ann’s closest friend Mary Patington who also narrates the film, Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac, All the Money in the World, The Night House) as Jane Wardley, Christopher Abbott (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Wolf Man (2025)) as Ann’s husband Abraham Standerin, Tim Blake Nelson (Minority Report, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Lincoln) as Pastor Reuben Wright, Matthew Beard (An Education, One Day, The Imitation Game) as James Whittaker, Viola Prettejohn (The Nevers, The Crown, Amadeus (2025)) as Ann’s niece Nancy Lee, and David Kale (Radio Days, Pollock, Two Lovers) as John Hocknell. 

            Overall, The Testament of Ann Lee is an impressive feat and definitely seems like a story that should be told on film, but I just found this film simply decent at best outside of Seyfried’s performance who as far as I’m aware keeps this movie at a 3 star rating for me. She is great as Ann Lee and brings a lot of emotional weight to the film through her performance to the point where I often forgot I was watching Amanda Seyfried, she practically disappeared into the role. 

            The movie also looks great from a production design and cinematography standpoint, tons of interior scenes in large 18^th century England buildings, exterior shots of English architecture, and large-scale sequences at sea. It’s nowhere near as epic as something like Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, but the production designers deserve a lot of credit for making this film as big as they possibly could. 

            The songs are well-performed and orchestrated and the musical numbers while not bombastic and overblown like other musicals are very hypnotic by how they’re filmed and choreographed. It’s almost like musical sequences if they were done in a church and surprisingly that’s not as ludicrous as it sounds. 

            The plot itself is solid and explores some interesting ideas about religion and fighting for civil rights that could make for a captivating, maybe even Oscar-worthy movie, but there’s one fatal issue with this movie for me, the pacing. The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes which in all seriousness is not a super long runtime, but the film is slow with scenes that go on for too long, take too long to get to the point, and also scenes that have this very drab look to them that aren’t all that visually interesting to look at for a 2+ hour movie. 

            I don’t know if it was a result of me coming in somewhat blindly or knowing practically nothing about Ann Lee, but the movie did start to lose me at certain points before finally coming back and regaining some momentum. I feel like this movie is going to hit differently with various moviegoers and maybe if I rewatch it, I’ll start noticing things I didn’t fully appreciate the first time and understand it better. 

            The Testament of Ann Lee isn’t a bad movie by any means, there’s quite a bit to appreciate about its production, intention, and the acting particularly from Seyfried. For me, it’s a decent but very overhyped awards season movie that didn’t leave nearly as big an impact on me as films like Hamnet or Marty Supreme last year, watch it if you’re curious and know what you’re getting into.