"Ammonite" - Film Review
Despite the fact that production and filming began prior to Celine Sciamma’s exquisite Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Francis Lee’s Ammonite was released after it and cannot escape the comparison. The two films are similar in that both take place in secluded oceanside locales, focus on a lesbian relationship, and are period pieces. However, that is where the similarities end. While Portrait of a Lady on Fire soars, Ammonite stumbles.
Based very loosely on the life of fossil collector and paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), Ammonite takes place in the 1840s and turns the true platonic friendship between Mary and fellow geologist Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) into a romantic one. The film also portrays Charlotte as 15 years younger than Mary, when she’s actually 11 years older. Lee could have made a movie about fictional 19th century female geologists without taking anything away from the rest of the film. It’s odd to decide to rewrite this story, both in the ages and in the lesbian relationship, when there are plenty of queer women throughout history whose stories have not been told.
Charlotte is sent to stay with Mary by her husband (James McArdle) because she is suffering from melancholy. He believes the sea air will do her well. The relationship between Charlotte and Mary has a rocky start (no pun intended), but as Mary takes Charlotte along on her early-morning fossil walks and helps her to heal, an attraction begins to form. Unfortunately, there’s no chemistry between the two actors, and their subsequent relationship feels forced. This is partially because of confusing sequences, such as when Charlotte is gravely ill one day and having sex with Mary the next. Instead of taking the time to build emotional intimacy, the script simply has multiple sex scenes that are empty and meaningless because the audience feels no connection between Mary and Charlotte.
Lionsgate
Because of their similarities, it’s impossible not to think of how Portrait of a Lady on Fire accomplished everything Ammonite set out to achieve, yet Ammonite ends up being drab and lifeless. Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with no sex scenes, beautifully creates the intimacy that Ammonite lacks. Instead, it relies on meaningful moments and deep conversations. Building a connection through actual communication requires a basic level of understanding of how to write a relationship that Ammonite was fundamentally uninterested in. Instead, audiences are treated to prolonged scenes of Mary and Charlotte walking up and down the beach.
Eventually, Charlotte's husband calls for her to return to London. After Charlotte is settled back in her home, she invites Mary to visit her in London. Mary discovers that Charlotte wants her to give up her study of fossils and live with her forever in a guest room of the Murchison home. This infuriates Mary because she believes it shows that Charlotte doesn’t respect the life she led at the seaside. The film ends as the two of them look at each other over a fossil in the British Museum in what is yet another attempt to give more meaning to the relationship than truly exists. Ending the film on the silence between two lovers can be powerful, but in the case of Ammonite, it highlights how little Mary and Charlotte have to say to each other.
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