Bare bones make Ammonite both beautiful and heartbreaking: TIFF Review

Ammonites, like major film festivals (Toronto’s included), are most exciting when you discover something new and work to uncover something beautiful. That’s the romance at the heart of Ammonite the film, an excellent feature that’s become the hottest ticket at this year’s festival.

The new period romance from writer/director Francis Lee doesn’t offer much that is new. But it does offer stellar craftsmanship and an immensely passionate story.

Inspired by the life of the 19th-century palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet in a rough, nuanced part), the film tells a story about her work on the south English coast looking for fossils in expansive clay and stone shores. Mary is like the ammonites and fossils she looks for: dirty, robust and in need of excavation.

That discovery comes from an expected new friend named Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), whose husband Roderick (James McArdle) has left her in town to heal from grieving. As she recovers, she begins shadowing Mary as they two women eventually begin a romantic relationship.

Lee is courageous to use dialogue so sparingly, and while it’s an effective tone for the setting, it does slow down the pace and occasionally drag out long gaps without much happening. More would have been an asset.Once Mary and Charlotte warm up to each other, so does the advance begin moving quicker too.

One detail that’s stuck with me since seeing the film is the sound editing, and most of all the sound of the north Atlantic ocean. The volume of the waves crashing on shore matches Mary’s level of tension as she becomes closer or more distant to whoever she’s with.

Make no mistake - Mary and Charlotte’s relationship more than carries the film, with both Winslet and Ronan’s performances alone making the film worth seeing. The chemistry that builds between them is intoxicating, eventually coming to a fiery apex.

Those familiar with cinema of this high calibre will eventually find a few similarities to February’s magnificent Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but tonally it’s got more in common with Lee’s debut feature God’s Own Country. The biggest difference from them both is, again, the dialogue here being the sharpest part.

Ammonite teaches us we can’t try to own something that doesn’t belong to us. If we do, we risk losing something (or someone’s) beauty in the first place.

Tickets are very hard to come by. Consider yourself lucky if you can get a seat or digital access. I know the struggle well myself - I literally stood outside the TIFF Bell Lightbox holding a homemade sign before eventually getting a ticket. But if you can’t see it at TIFF this week, its planned general release is in early November. (Or, if you fancy a weekend drive, it also plays Sudbury Cinéfest next weekend!)

The movie is defined by its stark landscapes, barren dialogues and a sense of coldness in everything from the sets to the facial expressions. So how did director Lee infuse so much tenderness and warmth into Mary and Charlotte’s relationship?

Maybe that too is as rare and as special as finding a fossil.

Ammonite

9 out of 10

1hr 57mins. Drama Romance.

Written and Directed by Francis Lee.

Starring Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, Alec Secareanu and James McArdle.

Streamed on TIFF’s Bell Digital Cinema on Saturday September 12th and plays the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Monday September 14th, with tickets available online here. General release in theatres November 13, 2020.