150 Word Review: 'The Testament of Ann Lee' (2025)
Shake it off
America was founded by religious fanatics. Director Mona Fastvold’s earnest The Testament of Ann Lee is rare: a cult movie where the cult is the hero. Amanda Seyfried is commanding as Ann Lee, the English-born founder of the Shaker movement in upstate New York. Her eyes glow with pain and wonder.
Like any church service, The Testament of Ann Lee feels overlong, especially once the Shakers become an established, if fringe, Christian group. The pacing is nigh Barry Lyndon-like. Fastvold is too respectful of Ann Lee, who lived in a time when the spiritual and real worlds overlapped, but scenes of mystical rapture feel muted.
The ecstatic dance scenes are spellbinding. The shakers are theatre kids! This is more than a period piece; it’s also a half-hearted experimental musical. The songs, with music by Daniel Blumberg and lyrics drawn from Shaker hymns, are too reverent and not quite anachronistic enough.