The Testament of Ann Lee: an aesthetic tour de force (review)

Co-writer of The Brutalist, Mona Fastvold is directing a third female feature, dedicated to a figure forgotten by the history books, and radically plays with the codes of musical comedy.

Ann Lee is a mother of five. Of four children, first – none of them lived to see their first birthday. From the Organization of the United Society of Believers in the Second Appearance of Christ, then, whose faithful see in her the feminine Messiah announced by their dogma, deviated from Protestantism. Along his path, a religious fever spreads. Voices rise in praise, bodies fall into trances, as pious as they are macabre; the very ones who gave their nickname to these “Shakers”.

A surprising portrait of a woman by the Norwegian Mona Fastvold, on a screenplay written jointly with Brady Corbet (The Brutalist). Woman of the people born into poverty in Manchester in the 16th century; wife of a husband, whose sexual preferences she is subject to; prophetess driven by an immutable faith in abstinence; pioneer spirit leading his livestock across the Atlantic in search of land to colonize; devotee accused of witchcraft and heresy, hunted by traditionalist religious institutions. Amanda Seyfried (Jennifer’s Body, Mamma Mia!, and, more recently, The Maid) demonstrates an unprecedented maturity of interpretation, portraying all the faces of this singular character with extreme fervor, dedication and accuracy – burning eyes, drawn features, body damaged by life and by men.

The challenge was daunting for this musical comedy of another genre, an exercise in style punctuated by the pounding of alienating percussion. An aesthetic tour de force so well thought out that its formalism sometimes eclipses its substance, the sectarian dimension of the organization being obscured by the enthusiasm which infuses this destiny of an extraordinary woman.

By Mona Fastvold. With Amanda Seyfried, Lewis Pullman, Tim Blake Nelson… Duration: 2h10. Released March 11, 2026