I tried my hardest, guys. I REALLY tried my hardest not to compare this to Portrait of a Lady on Fire but when a film like Francis Lee's Ammonite is as tenderly made as it is and focuses on a period-piece romance between two women, it is very hard not to see the comparisons. For many reasons, though, I really don't think that Lee's film has come even close to the mastery of the genre as Céline Sciamma's masterpiece. This film is a very well-acted and gorgeous-looking story that touches on just about every element a romance film needs in order to be effective but for the life of me, I was just never sold on any bit of it. The chemistry between the two leads was practically absent and while the sex scenes were definitely... a choice... I just could not get myself to care about their romance in the slightest. It's quite a pity, actually, because when you have two amazingly talented performers and a masterful crew who obviously know what they are doing, it's a shame to have it all go to waste on an unmemorable and frankly fetishized film like this.
Paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) works along a shoreline in 1840s England, running a shop with her mother Molly (Gemma Jones). When a man named Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) stops by, he proposes that his wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) learn from Mary in order to give her something to do because of her melancholia. After time spent together, Mary and Charlotte soon discover a romance deeper inside themselves just waiting to happen. It would seem almost impossible for a film starring Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet to be bad because these two incredible artists are so at the top of their game and this film could have been the perfect vehicle for them. Their performances are the best parts of this movie and they each give so much energy towards their characters that really shows how mature and skillful their careers have become, especially Ronan. Seeing them on screen together, however, was where I began to have issues. The chemistry between these two is just plain awkward and I don't believe that they were the best together for this film. Individually, they absolutely rock but when their characters' stories begin to intersect is when I just had a really hard time feeling anything. This is mostly due to Francis Lee's writing and direction, which is honestly the core of Ammonite's problems. There is nothing outwardly wrong with the way that this story plays out and Lee even shows great handling of the romance genre but his writing just felt inappropriate for the time period and tone that this story was trying to go for. There is a weird veil of humor throughout this whole movie that I couldn't help but feel was incredibly corny and so many of these moments undercut what should have been a more emotional beat. This strange comedy that pulses through the plot's drama did not fit too well and I just think that Lee had a very hard time deciding the direction for this film. Lee also includes some offensively obvious symbolism throughout this film that nearly made me laugh in the theater. From Charlotte's wedding ring falling off before her and Mary's first kiss to Mary literally eating hard-boiled eggs after going down on Charlotte, I just did not appreciate the direct, thematic approach that Lee takes with so many choices in this film, as they only made the tone more bewildering.
The direction that Lee takes with this story is highly predictable and it's never really a good sign when I can tell early on in a film exactly what is going to happen. All of this movie's emotional beats and story developments are laid out very early on and are never really given much time to develop themselves. Because instead of telling the potentially beautiful story that was right in front of him, Lee spends too much time on the eroticism of his characters. The romance between Mary and Charlotte never felt earned and their stories just felt mashed together for the sake of a relationship between the two. The proceeding sex scenes that happened between them were also quite strange, to say the least, and I just could not get past the fact that they were written and directed by a straight, white, man. I would never say who is right or wrong when it comes to sexuality and sexual behavior but these scenes just felt fetishized to the extreme and I still do think it's important to remember that it was Lee writing and directing. I was a bit uncomfortable with those sequences and although Ronan and Winslet have stated in interviews that they felt comfortable with each other and what they were doing (which is great! It's how sex scenes SHOULD be conducted), I never felt like they were earned at all because of the lack of genuine chemistry and textual romance. However, despite the fact that this story and its accompanying romance almost felt undeserved and unfinished in its entirety, it was gorgeous to look at. If nothing else, the cinematography from Stéphane Fontaine paired with the sound design was just exquisite and made Ammonite feel gorgeous. Fontaine is able to capture the dreary atmosphere and still life of England in this time period very well and his utilization of closeups was just great. I could feel every rock surface that Mary climbed and hear every little scrape of her cleaning tools and thanks to this film's technical departments, I was at least able to enjoy the visual storytelling that I was watching unfold.
Francis Lee's Ammonite is a forgettable and unremarkable romance film that has so much potential going for it wasted on the skewed vision of a male filmmaker. It might sound like I am absolutely bashing on this movie (which I am!) but it's important for me to remember not to discredit the work of all the people on set. There are so many incredible elements that make this film look and sound amazing but at the core of its story is where I find too many faults to ignore. I hate to make comparisons like these, especially between two films released very close together but Ammonite is just the result of a straight, white, man who saw Portrait of a Lady on Fire and thought "hey, let me try!" And just as is the case for many generations of film and its particular genres, the French have done it far better.
My Rating: ★★½
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