Kate Winslet is a Victorian fossil hunter whose passions are ignited when she falls for Saoirse Ronan’s grieving wife (15)
IN 2017, writer-director Francis Lee drew heavily on his upbringing on a family farm in West Yorkshire for his multi-award-winning debut feature, God’s Own Country.
The emotionally raw love story between a closeted farmer’s son and a Romanian immigrant worker drew favourable comparisons with Brokeback Mountain.
Lee attempts a similar feat of cinematic alchemy, this time on the shores of the Jurassic coast of 19thcentury Devon, in Ammonite.
This beautifully crafted period romance casts Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan as secret lovers in a Victorian era of groundbreaking scientific discovery.
Winslet’s stoic trailblazer, who barely registers emotion as she prowls the beaches in search of fossils, is a stark counterpoint to Ronan’s effervescent woman of learning and privilege, who has been rendered numb by the recent loss of a child.
The actresses expertly plumb despair and longing in wordless sequences, captured in bold strokes by cinematographer Stephane Fontaine.
Pioneering palaeontologist Mary Anning (Winslet) battles the elements to painstakingly excavate nearly complete skeletons and other fossilised treasures from the cliffside.
As a woman, she is not credited properly for her discoveries by a patriarchal scientific community, which proudly displays her work in museum cabinets in London.
Instead, Mary ekes out a thankless living alongside her perspicacious mother Molly (Gemma
Jones) by selling fossils and curios to tourists through the family business in Lyme Regis. Fellow palaeontologist Roderick Murchison (James Mcardle) arrives in town with his young wife Charlotte (Ronan), who is in the grip of “mild melancholia”. He entreats Mary to take care of Charlotte for “four weeks, perhaps five... no more than six” in the hope that the bracing sea air and walks along the coastline will improve his wife’s disposition and reignite her maternal spirit. Ammonite doesn’t quite match the heady erotic charge of Lee’s previous film but it’s equally elegant and assured. Winslet and Ronan delicately trace their character arcs, culminating in artfully staged scenes of carnal desire that the relentless sea spray can’t dampen.
The actresses expertly plumb despair and longing in wordless sequences...
■ Released: March 26 via Premium Video On Demand