Film Review: Ammonite Is The Love Story We Need Right Now
I’m going to be honest. I totally wanted to see Ammonite because I am HERE for a Kate Winslet- Saoirse Ronan love story. Written and directed by Francis Lee, the film thrives off the very reason some will adore it and others will say, “meh!” It is a celebration of quietness. The quietness of being an incredible mind with a soaring talent and not being recognized for either because you are a woman. The quietness of being a woman with a massive heart eager to be loved and loving, but being repressed because you want to give that love to another woman. The quietness of a poorer life that basks in the nature of places like stunning, open beaches because the same four walls of your home can feel imprisoning. Francis Lee’s Ammonite paints the grit of quietness.
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are one those actresses who make all of their films feel like Oscar-worthy turns. They simply never give bad performances either because they always choose great roles or they understand there is never a “bad character” as much as one played badly. For them, your could add nuance to a brown-paper bag if you have enough imagination, and the love story between Kate Winslet’s Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan’s Charlotte Murchison thrives by the way they see each other as imaginative and thus, their love, makes them dream even more. They simply feel revived by each other’s love, especially as woman in 1840s England.
AMMONITE Trailer (2020) Saoirse Ronan, Kate Winslet Movie
The film’s cinematographic palette is gray, blue, and every shade or tone of it to show these women live in neutrality…. aka boredom. Sure, Mary is a paleontologist that can literally make a world of knowledge out of a rock, but she still wants love, fun, and, rightfully, a progressive acknowledgment of her value as a scientist. Winslet carries this film because you relate to her frustration, especially in 2020. People feel locked in spiritually as much as they do physically. There is an overarching atmosphere, of 2020, that is pushing people to reanalyze and revamp how they exist, which is Charlotte and Mary’s journey. Charlotte is turning the lights on to Mary’s dimmed existence and doing it with love, which is why Ammonite’s story totally swept me with its romanticism.
“I Had To Live A Strange Isolated Life” – Kate Winslet On Playing Mary Anning In “Ammonite”
The chemistry between Ronan’s Charlotte and Winslet’s Mary is palpable. There is a sweet, pure strength to Saoirse’s Charlotte that totally makes you understand Mary’s attraction. These are women with minds and spirits far greater than their surroundings, which is why you can’t help but want to escort every man that enters a scene and say, “Please Leave! The women are speaking!” Francis Lee has gorgeously made a love story that oddly matches 2020 in showing, with a great partner, all our depressions, oppressions, and repressions seem to fade away. Love really does conquer all, at least, in terms of what we go through.
