Where to Watch The Testament of Ann Lee
- James SaenzApril 12, 2026i grew up attending more traditional churches, so when i attended christian camps as a teenager i was exposed to the concept of evangelical worship services for the first time; the euphoria that sets in through collective religious reverie is hard to describe, but it is as addicting as it is ecstatic. seeing the roots of that kind of musical worship in the shaker movement here elicited several confused emotions for me, especially when ann lee herself cannot read the word of god and relies on her divine visions for theological guidance and proclaims herself to be christ reborn (i mean who doesn’t have complex relation with religion and how it’s manipulated us). i felt the fervor i used to feel when i attended church and was oftentimes swept up in the music of the film, but the gnawing pit in my stomach from religious trauma was ever present. the haunting instrumentations and melodies alongside amanda seyfried’s incredible performance are the highlights of the movie, and the presentation of ann lee’s childhood trauma and married sexual trauma and how they manifest in her religious beliefs was both heartbreaking and fascinating; that being said, as a biopic i felt like i was expecting more. i definitely went into this with high expectations and so that probably skewed my experience, but i will definitely need more time to parse how i feel about it and look deeper into her actual life and how the two remaining living shakers feel about the film.
- Kevin WardDecember 14, 2025Amanda Seyfried is magnificent here. Her vocal performance is absolutely stunning, working in spiritual communion with Daniel Blumberg’s score and the entrancing, worshipful choreography. The film’s cinematography look gorgeous as well. A musical-inflected historical drama about, Ann Lee, religious leader who founded the Shaker movement, Mona Fastvold’s film charts her emergence as a radical spiritual figure whose beliefs challenged patriarchal religious structures. Having left our own church years ago after learning they didn’t allow women elders, I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to stories of early female spiritual leaders, apocryphal women, and the frequent collision of feminism and religion. Ann Lee’s story fits squarely into that lineage.
- rod.chaMarch 25, 2026Fascinating. While the Shakers would have been outraged by the sensuality in “Testament”, it did serve as sugar to help the message go down. I had thought the Shakers to be a weird, short-lived cult that made nice chairs. After watching the movie, I looked deeper. The Shakers existed for 250 years and made great contributions to art, design, and agriculture. While they had strict moral beliefs, they held revolutionary ideas, that God was both male and female, that the messiah would return as a woman, and equality of the sexes. They took in so many orphaned children that the government passed a law against churches adopting children. This will not be everyone’s cup of tea but I enjoyed it.
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The Testament of Ann Lee was released on December 25, 2025.
The Testament of Ann Lee was directed by Mona Fastvold.
The Testament of Ann Lee has a runtime of 2h 17m.
The Testament of Ann Lee was produced by Andrew Morrison, Joshua Horsfield, Viktória Petrányi, Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet, Mark Lampert, Gregory Jankilevitsch, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Lillian LaSalle.
Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, is proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. This film depicts her establishment of a utopian society and the Shakers' worship through song and dance, based on real events.
The key characters in The Testament of Ann Lee are Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), William Lee (Lewis Pullman), Mary Partington / Narrator (Thomasin McKenzie).
The Testament of Ann Lee is rated R.
The Testament of Ann Lee is a Drama, Biography, History film.
The Testament of Ann Lee has an audience rating of 8.2 out of 10.
The Testament of Ann Lee had a budget of $10M.
The Testament of Ann Lee has made $4.2M at the box office.