The Testament of Ann Lee (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
2 days ago
4 min read

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE (2025)

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Esmee Hewett, Millie Rose Crossley, Benjamin Bagota, Harry Conway, Scott Handy, Matthew Beard, Viola Prettejohn, Jamie Bogyo, David Cale, Jeremy Wheeler, Daniel Blumberg, Willem van der Vegt, Maria Sand and Scott Alexander Young.

Screenplay by Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet.

Directed by Mona Fastvold.

Distributed by Searchlight Pictures. 137 minutes. Rated R.

Screened at the 2025 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Probably because she is so pretty, Amanda Seyfried’s talent as an actress (and as a singer) has always been rather underestimated. People tend to downplay her skills, suggesting that she is getting by on her looks. And honestly, that has never been deserved. She is much better than she is usually given credit for.

Seyfried has been working pretty regularly since she was a little girl. She started as a child model when she was just eight years old. She trained in acting, singing and dancing. Her acting career started out in soap operas (As the World Turns, All My Children) in the early aughts. Soon after that she got a major supporting role in the popular comedy Mean Girls. This was quickly followed by roles in buzzy films like Alpha Dog, Nine Lives, American Gun and a recurring role in the cult series Veronica Mars.

It was the HBO series Big Love which skyrocketed her career, though. Since then she has shown that she can handle a wonderful variety of roles. She has done romantic potboilers (Dear John, The Art of Racing in the Rain), rom-coms (While We’re Young, Letters to Juliet). She has made thrillers (Jennifer’s Body, Chloe, Red Riding Hood). She has made film musicals (Mamma Mia, Les Misérables, Mamma Mia: Here We Come Again). She has done dumb comedy (Ted 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West.) She has done sci-fi (In Time). She had done biopics (Lovelace, Manc). She was even nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2020 for her role in Manc.

That’s just the movies. She has also done a few series over the years. In fairness, she has made her share of pretty bad movies over the years. Still, she tended to be one of the best parts of these lesser films.

However, Seyfried is hitting the age where jobs tend to dry up in Hollywood for actresses who are mostly known for their looks. (She just turned 40 in December.) Therefore, Seyfried has spent the past year making some interesting, quirky and slightly dangerous decisions – and good for her. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a fascinating second act for her career.

First, she took on the gritty Peacock series Long Bright River where Seyfried definitely glammed down a lot, playing a traumatized cop dealing with drug dealing, kidnapping, murder and sex trafficking in the ghettos of Philadelphia. Then, last month she went a little over the top (but in a fun way) playing an apparently crazy aging trophy wife who seems to be mentally and physically toying with her new maid (Sydney Sweeney) in the pulpy psychological thriller The Housemaid.

Now, here comes The Testament of Ann Lee, which may be the strangest, most complicated project yet. It is a biopic and it is a musical… well sort of… about one of the founders of an 18th century religious sect known as “The Shakers.” Ann Lee brought the Shakers to the New World from England during the revolutionary war, spreading the word of empathy, devotion to Jesus and celibacy.

As Wikipedia explains about the Shakers, “The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded c. 1747 in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially known as ‘Shaking Quakers’ because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services.”

Hmm, that sounds like an interesting subject for a musical. No doubt it should lead to some real toe tappers and Broadway showstoppers. And, honestly, while much of the music is rather pretty, very little is the sort of thing to inspire you to find a soundtrack album and listen to it with any regularity. Which sort of makes sense, considering that much of the music is derived from original Shakers hymns.

Yet, as weird an idea a musical about the hardships of 18th century religious fundamentalists fighting oppression perhaps seems, it actually works. It works much better than you may expect. It probably works better as a drama than a musical, but the music is a vital and fundamental part of the story. It is not the type of a story that I would normally seek out, and yet I was fascinated by the journey.

Much of the success is due directly to a terrific performance by Seyfried. It’s too early to say about another Oscar nom, but I will note that Seyfried has already been nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress.

Good for Seyfried for continuing to defy expectations.

Jay S. Jacobs