2025 had a surprising number of career-best performances from well-established actors—Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon, Nick Offerman in Death by Lightning... And we have to add Amanda Seyfried to that list with her astonishing turn in the astonishing film The Testament of Ann Lee, a biopic about the woman who founded the religious movement known as the Shakers in the 18th century.
I’ll admit, to my own shame, that I’ve only really ever known the Shakers as a punchline, knowing that one of their main tenets was a rejection of sexual activity of any kind. But the movie explodes onto the screen and injects full life into both Ann Lee and her movement. It’s directed by Mona Fastvold, who’s written some magnificent films, including last year’s Best Picture nominee The Brutalist, but this is a huge leap for her as a director. She takes enormous chances with how she presents Lee’s life and the Shaker movement, with the movie turning out to be a musical, although not really like one you’ve seen much before. The songs were largely drawn from Shaker hymns but they somehow also feel modern, as they’re sung over scenes of the Shakers and their pure religious ecstasy. They throw and contort their bodies with sharp, angular movements while they celebrate their connection to the divine. Fastvold uses a voiceover narration to tell many of the details of Lee’s story, which may or may not be the right decision. But there’s a lot to tell, so it’s hard to blame her too much, and she makes up for it with her other big swings.
Seyfried plays Ann Lee with a fiery determination, and we see the pain that led her to this life and this calling, with the early death of all of her children and a husband who co-opts the era’s sexual views to suit his own needs. But we also learn that a major part of the Shaker belief is that since God made us all in His own image, man and woman, the Second Coming was to be embodied by a woman, and that may well have been Lee, herself. This unnerves many outside the Shaker community, leading to abuse, destruction, and tragedy, but Lee and her followers remain completely undeterred, displaying the power and attraction of sincere belief and this truly remarkable woman.
The Testament of Ann Lee is in theaters.
