Movie Review: Ammonite (2020)

Genre: Romantic Drama  

Director: Francis Lee  

Starring: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, James McArdle  

Running Time: 117 minutes  

Synopsis: The setting is the small English seaside village of Lyme Regis in the 1840s. Fossil collector Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) runs a small shop with her mother Molly (Gemma Jones), and spends her days on the beach looking for geological artefacts. Mary is single and never received recognition in a male-dominated profession. Her mood is further soured when she is asked to care for the ailing Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), a neglected wife recovering from a miscarriage while her husband (James McArdle) travels in Europe. But gradually, romance blossoms between Mary and Charlotte.

What Works Well: A historical fiction story constructed around real characters, this romantic drama uses sparse words and focuses on a sense of time and place. Director Francis Lee conveys a tough existence within a rustic village ambience, Mary in her element on windswept beaches and relishing the muddy work of finding and extracting fossils. With Mary overlooked by her profession and Charlotte ignored by her husband, the romance unfurls with tenderness, two women finding passion in the absence of respect.  

What Does Not Work As Well: The pacing is glacial and the mood uniformly dour - smiles less common than precious archeological finds. The focus on a fictional romance rather than Mary's professional achievements and struggles is a dubious narrative decision.

Key Quote:

Charlotte: You look after me like your child. You don't have any?

Mary: What a lot of questions. I might have preferred it when you were unconscious.

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