Delayed Reaction: Ammonite

Premise: A gruff female paleontologist bonds with and eventually has an affair with the depressed wife of an amateur paleontologist.

 

If I never visit England, it will be because of its depiction in movies. My impression of England is that it is cold, wet, perpetually overcast, and devoid of any vibrant colors. My only solace is that this depiction is mainly period films about England. Most modern movies try to keep everything in London, where I imagine they've built some sort of biodome to simulate a climate in which humans are allowed to experience joy. The number of times I've seen damp English period pieces that I immediately followed with a warm shower, just to get the chill out of my bones, is getting alarming.

 

Ammonite is a cold movie in many more ways than the dreary English countryside. There's hardly any dialogue for long stretches. There's barely a smile to be found. Everyone looks depressed the entire time. To director Francis Lee's credit, I am sure this is exactly what he was going for. I think the movie sticks to his vision. I just don't care for that vision, apparently.

 

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are fine in this. They fit into the world nicely. I like Kate Winslet as a grump. She tends to be in this mode in more contemporary movies. Ronan is more of an empty vessel in the movie. Her character starts the film depressed over a miscarriage and, presumably, an unhappy marriage to begin with. She opens up over time, but she's not really injected with much personality. Winslet is so guarded and Ronan so undefined, that I didn't get any heat from their romance. Sure, there is a steamy sex scene or two. I guess the idea is that they are so repressed that those moments are the only time they can be open, but they felt incongruent with the rest of the film. This struck me as a movie about repression for the sake of repression.

 

Some of the problem is that the 19-year age gap is very noticeable between Winslet and Ronan. I wonder if swapping either of them out with a Carey Mulligan would've played a little better. That would only be a 10-year age gap either way which puts them on more equal footing. Because, I didn't really get the sense that this was trying to be a movie about a middle-aged woman finding a new wind after connecting with a much younger woman. Again, maybe I would've read that more if everything wasn't so dreary.

 

This was a bummer for my 4000th movie. Granted, to see 4000 movies, it hard to save one that I know will be great. Winslet and Ronan are decently engaging to watch, despite what little they are asked to do. Fiona Shaw shows up briefly as Winslet's ex and I immediately wanted to follow her around instead. I wish that Francis Lee would've been less concerned with being accurate to the period and location in order to inject some more life into the movie.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend