Amanda Seyfried delivered two of 2025’s most compelling performances. One of them is on the lengthy and perennially growing list of “Biggest Oscar Snubs”.
Seyfried was deadly in the thriller The Housemaid, overshadowing co-star Sydney Sweeney (no mean task). And The Testament of Ann Lee is unimaginable without Seyfried. The latter movie earned Seyfried nominations at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice awards, but the Oscars were not swayed.
Perhaps it had something to do with the inherent strangeness of Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, about the founder of the millenarian Christian sect called the Shakers. The Oscars usually prefer films that give the appearance of complexity while actually being simple to follow and easy to relate to. The Testament of Ann Lee, which is out on JioHotstar, isn’t that kind of movie.
Co-written by Fastvold and her partner Brady Corbet (they also collaborated on Corbet’s The Brutalist in 2024), the period biopic explores the intense religiosity that led to Ann Lee setting up the Shakers. In eighteenth-century England, Ann (Seyfried) and her brother William (Lewis Pullman) are initially followers of the Quaker sect. Ann is an enthusiastic participant in the ecstatic chest-beating, singing and dancing, called shaking.
Ann’s beliefs deepen and take a turn after she marries Abraham (Christopher Abbot). The loss of all her children soon after childbirth, her disgust over sex, and her quest for a more rapturous form of worship lead her to forming the Shakers. She is soon called Mother Ann, the female Messiah.
The movie follows Ann’s struggles to grow her flock amidst mistrust of the Shakers’ ways. After Ann moves from England to New England in America, she finds greater success but also a violent pushback.
Mona Fastvold’s exploration of a sect that has all but died out is characterised by mysticism, curiosity and respect. Although the rituals of the Shakers might seem peculiar to contemporary viewers, the film stays truthful to Ann Lee’s credo and the passion of her followers. Even in what appear to be moments of madness, Ann is the picture of dignity.
Shot on 35mm stock, the movie has a rich texture that complements the immersive performances of its cast, especially its powerful heroine.
Amanda Seyfried is simply mesmerising as Ann Lee, unerringly portraying a woman who suffers deeply for her insistence on chastity and the ferocity of her faith. Lewis Pullman is memorable too as Ann’s brother, who similarly sacrifices his desires to follow Ann on a path that’s unfamiliar and unsettling but also deeply meaningful for its travellers.
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