Ammonite (2020) Director: Francis Lee Starring: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, James McArdle, Alec Secăreanu, Fiona Shaw
Certificate: 15 Running Time: 120 Minutes
The last year has been a lean time for movie fans. This is of course understandable given the rather unique circumstances, but lean nonetheless, with many films I was looking forward to being delayed considerably. Some, like Black Widow and The French Dispatch still aren't out, while others have seen low-key releases on streaming services or very limited theatrical releases. Ammonite is one of these, and while it has only been released in the US so far, I'm happy to say I have now finally managed to see it anyway. I can't even remember what put it on my radar now. It definitely wasn't the much vaunted 'intimate' scenes between the two female leads (*cough*cough*) so what could it have been? It was could well have been simply down to Saoirse Ronan's presence here, having been something of a fan of hers since Hanna, but it's rarely less than interesting to see a biopic of an important historical figure. In this case it's Mary Anning (Winslet), the 19th-century British palaeontologist, but as my wife (who had also been looking forward to seeing it) and I sson discovered, it's not exactly a biopic at all.
Anning, a self-taught fossil collector and palaeontologist, was fairly well known and respected in her own time but was never fully accepted by or able to fully participate in the scientific community of the time, mainly because she was a woman. Her fight against this adversity could've made a great film but, as it turns out, it's set during a brief period of her later years, and only 'loosely inspired' by real events at that. We find her living in near-poverty with her ailing mother in Lyme Regis, part of the UK's 'Jurassic Coast', where she scratches a living selling fossils to tourists, the days of her most famous discoveries behind her. One tourist/fan, Roderick Murchison (McArdle), then turns up with his mopey wife Charlotte (Ronan) who he decides to offload on Mary while he goes off travelling around Europe for a while.
The reason for Charlotte's morose demeanour, as we rather vaguely learn, is down to an unspecified personal tragedy that has recently befallen her (but presumably not her beau), resulting in melancholia (i.e. depression). Mary is a bit of a sourpuss herself so this doesn't initially seem like the greatest idea, but after a bit of time they start to hit it off. As you would expect from both Winslet and Ronan, the acting to that end is of a very high standard here, but sadly, despite this, neither my wife nor I found their story enormously compelling. This is at least partly down to Anning herself who Winslet plays as routinely cold, unfriendly and even rude. Perhaps this is accurate, who knows, but it doesn't make her particularly appealing. It would be okay if the film's story showed how Charlotte's arrival softened Mary a little as their love developed or something like that, but it never even feels like a love story to me.
It's more like the two of them are just taking advantage of being stuck with each other. On top of all this, it might all be fiction anyway. There's no evidence that Anning was a lesbian in real life so why make a film focusing solely on this at-best-assumed aspect of her life? She's famous now for her career rather than her personal life and I'd much rather have seen a film that focused on that, perhaps with this speculative love affair as a side plot. She must've had an interesting life after all, and obviously had a tougher time making a name for herself than her male counterparts. Oh well. The film's dreary grey aesthetic doesn't do much to better the atmosphere either. This is probably accurate but it made me feel cold and wet just watching! It's far from a terrible film - most critics seem to love it - but it's just further evidence for me that great performances aren't necessarily the be-all and end-all.
No comments:
Post a Comment