Here’s something that caught my eye lately, even if—or because—it seemed a subject a bit too esoteric for the mass market. Here we delve into a more obscure religious sect via the Testament of Ann Lee, the key early figure of the Shaker movement…done, more or less, as the Shakers would tell it. What does that mean precisely? Well, through director Mona Fastvold, let’s find out…
Our story follows, well, Ann Lee, born in the 18th century to a lowly British family but still fascinated with the airs of religion—and eventually drawn to the Quaker sects on the fringe, soon to become the Shakers. Why the name? Well, this was a group that believed in worship through religious ecstasy that manifested as feverous dance—and so it follows that the film follows a semi-musical structure, expressed in that very spirit, so to speak. At first it seems a bit indecisive there, with a slightly overbearing narration, but once things click, they thankfully clicked.
Amanda Seyfried is our lead and things all hinge on her—thankfully, she pulls off a somewhat complex role nicely. Ann here is certainly pious, but a true believer, and genuinely interested in establishing her somewhat heretical community. Slavery is looked upon with disgust by the Shakers and for the standards of the era, they were pretty progressive in gender relations. The flip side is that by modern standards, Ann here is also very sex-negative—but there are reasons for that, ones more personal than just scripture, also sold pretty well here. Whether she’s a prophet or merely someone swept along in her own vision is something left somewhat to the viewer, but it’s done interestingly enough.
Alongside the musical parts we of course have the ‘shaking’ of the sect—something that if you’re just looking on in might look a bit silly, and in parts it perhaps does here too. Of course, Fastvold does her best to present the actual emotions and passions of this form of worship in a way the viewer might comprehend—so it’s perhaps a lot more choreographed than the real thing was, but as is often the case in film, the important thing is expressing the feeling than being overly literal. And with dance often being so key to expression in so many cultures, in terms of passion above all else, is it not perhaps more relatable as an expression of faith than folks seated in a pew?
If you get on board with that, the film is most definitely an interesting watch, with all the appropriate tragic turns and twists (such as Ann straining her relationship with her somewhat distant husband played by Christopher Abbot to its breaking point), to having to adjust to the tribulations of the Shakers moving to the Colonies of the New World about to be thrust into turmoil. Everything’s done briskly and stylishly enough, so if nothing else, it’s definitely not one to get bored by.
As the ending credits point out, while the Shaker movement is technically still around, it teeters on extinction. Even if not without bias, this flick still remains as something at least such a group can be remembered by—as going against the curve as they did too.
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