Culture
Now Playing: ‘Testament of Ann Lee’ is a strange and sensual Shaker musical
By: Gordon Briggs
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I’ve seen some very strange musicals recently.
Once exclusively the territory of award-seeking prestige bio pics and adaptations of popular Broadway shows, the Hollywood musical has morphed into something darker and more peculiar with films such as Better Man, Emily Perez, and Joker: Folie à Deux.
These movies often place musical numbers alongside violent and abrasive imagery and sometimes use musical ballads to voice their characters’ darkest and most unpleasant desires. The Testament of Ann Lee is such a film. An alienating, graphic, and unusual film that’s also filled with memorable musical numbers.
The only way I can describe it is as a primal and passionate, but sometimes repetitive, historical musical drama. Directed by Mona Fastvold and starring Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker movement, we follow Anne’s story as she creates a new religion built around sexual chastity and leads her followers from England to America in search of a utopian society based on gender and social equality.
The picture entertained parts of me. The blending of historical drama and religious musical makes for a compelling combination for the senses. Yet, at times, I still felt a certain distance from the movie.
The movie is built on a fascinating contradiction. The shakers are repressing their sexual urges, but their pulsating bodily movements and grandiose exclamations of ecstasy seem almost orgasmic in appearance. This creates a fascinating viewing experience where the actors aren’t being sexual with each other, but still appear as if they’re in physical and spiritual ecstasy.
Sometimes those musical numbers are more absurd than stirring. However, they may be deliberately absurd. The filmmakers blend the intense, rhythmic, and angular dances with prayerful, sometimes whispered, vocals. Furthermore, some of the music involves “laboring”—a blend of rhythmic, repetitive, and disciplined movement, including stomping, that reflects the Shakers’ communal lifestyle. Still, those memorable musical moments are when the movie is at its best.
For example, there’s an extended sequence where the Shakers board a boat and set sail across the Atlantic for the Americans to practice their religion. Their turbulent journey, filled with thunderstorms and the crashing of waves against the vessel, is juxtaposed with scenes of the Shakers stomping and singing the hymn “All is Summer.”
It’s a lively and well-choreographed scene, but I was always more interested in the spectacle than in the characters. I’m fascinated by stories about belief systems and what compels someone to upend their entire life for a religious belief. Still, I wanted something a bit more internal and psychological about Anne’s shaky beliefs.
Did Anne Lee ever experience a crisis of faith? Could we not get a song about the struggle to believe, rather than just hymns about how devout her faith is?
Still, that’s a minor gripe in otherwise memorable addition to the dark musical genre. ★★★