Ammonite is a 2020 romantic drama film written and directed by Francis Lee. The film is inspired by the life of British paleontologist Mary Anning, played by Kate Winslet, and centers on a romantic relationship between Anning and Charlotte Murchison, played by Saoirse Ronan. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2020.
In December 2018, it was announced Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan had joined the cast of the film, with Francis Lee directing the screenplay he wrote. Iain Canning, Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly, and Emile Sherman serve as producers with See-Saw Films, BBC Films, and the British Film Institute. In March 2019, Fiona Shaw announced her role in the film. In May 2019, it was announced Alec Secareanu, James McArdle and Gemma Jones had joined the cast of the film.
In the 1840s, acclaimed self-taught paleontologist Mary Anning works alone on the wild and brutal Southern English coastline of Lyme Regis. The days of her famed discoveries behind her, she now hunts for common fossils to sell to rich tourists to support herself and her ailing widowed mother.
When one such tourist, Roderick Murchison, arrives in Lyme on the first leg of a European tour, he entrusts Mary with the care of his young wife Charlotte, who is recuperating from a personal tragedy. Mary, whose life is a daily struggle on the poverty line, cannot afford to turn him down but, proud and relentlessly passionate about her work, she clashes with her unwanted guest. They are two women from utterly different worlds.
Yet despite the chasm between their social spheres and personalities, Mary and Charlotte discover they can each offer what the other has been searching for: the realization that they are not alone. It is the beginning of a passionate and all-consuming love affair that will defy all social bonds and alter the course of both lives irrevocably.
A woman walks across a rocky shore on an overcast day. The mud under her feet and the crashing waves set a tone for a film that’s deeply sensorial and often routine about the drudgery of daily activity. The woman stumbles as she looks at different stones on the beach. It turns out that she is Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), a famous fossil hunter seeking signs of ancient life on the shore, living a solitary, nearly silent life with her mother Molly (Gemma Jones).
She seems to have an existence of routine that would be numbing for some people, finding stones to polish in search of fossils, and barely speaking. From the beginning of “Ammonite,” writer/director Francis Lee trusts his lead performer to convey an incredible amount without dialogue. And that trust pays off in one of the best performances of Kate Winslet’s career.
Everything changes for Mary when a man named Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) comes into her shop. He’s a fellow paleontologist who seems to have an honest appreciation for Anning’s work, although barely registers Mary’s disdain for the fact that her gender is one of the reasons her accomplishments aren’t more recognized.
Roderick has a wife named Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), whom he treats more roughly than Mary does her fossils. A shot of a bug trapped in a jar is one of the few times that Lee is so direct in terms of visual comparison, but it fits for Charlotte, a woman who is told what to do and when to do it by a husband who tells people she has “melancholia.”
An early scene in which the Murchisons eat dinner sets the tone for their dynamic—Roderick orders an elaborate meal for himself and then tells the waiter to bring his wife “plain whitefish, baked, no sauce.” While Roderick tries to learn a thing or two from Mary, his wife gets sick, and Roderick decides the best thing for Charlotte would be some sea air.
He chooses to leave Charlotte in this small town by the water, hoping the rest will do her some good, and he asks Mary to watch over her. Maybe she could head out on some fossil expeditions? Luckily, Lee doesn’t lean into the city/country dynamic much after their first day on the water. Charlotte adjusts to life with Mary, even helping out with her work.
A scene in which Charlotte helps carry a giant rock that Mary couldn’t have done on her own is formative in that this is a movie about connection and how some aspects of life take four hands instead of two. Mary and Charlotte get closer and closer until their relationship turns physical. Despite notable differences in background and interests, they turn out to have incredible chemistry, bringing out something in one another both emotionally and physically.
Great partners teach us new things about ourselves, and “Ammonite” really gets that element of human relationships without overplaying it. Lee’s approach is tactile without feeling exploitative or manipulative. Actually, one could argue parts of “Ammonite” are too low-register, but that’s reflective of its protagonist's personality in a way that keeps this love story from devolving into melodrama when it could at so many points.
And the film explodes in passionate love-making scenes that contrast with the drudgery of the rest of the film. They feel like drowning people gasping for air or people in darkness seeing blinding light for the first time. The contrast makes Mary and Charlotte’s passion burn brighter.
Ammonite Cast
- Kate Winslet as Mary Anning
- Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchison
- Fiona Shaw as Elizabeth Philpot
- Gemma Jones as Molly Anning
- James McArdle as Roderick Murchison
- Alec Secăreanu as Dr. Lieberson
- Claire Rushbrook as Eleanor Butters
Ammonite Release Date
In February 2019, Lionsgate and Transmission Films acquired the UK and Australian distribution rights to Ammonite, respectively. In January 2020, Neon acquired the U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to the film for $3 million. The film was set to world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, prior to its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also selected to screen at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2020, prior to its cancellation due to the pandemic.
Ammonite had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2020. On 16 July 2020, it was announced that Winslet would be awarded the 2020 festival's Tribute Actor Award. It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on 13 November 2020
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