The Testament of Ann Lee · reception & legacy

How The Testament of Ann Lee has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It split the Lido in September 2025 — walk-outs and baffled press at the screening, then a 15½-minute ovation at the premiere — before settling into solid acclaim (86% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a Best Actress awards push for Amanda Seyfried, even as its Christmas release barely registered at the box office.

What's debated

The recurring fight is whether the film is transcendent or an endurance test — with even fans conceding Seyfried's career-best performance may be better than the movie around it, and a final act that (as with The Brutalist) critics accuse of losing its way.

Its footprint

It lives in the culture as 'the Shaker musical' — the sister film to The Brutalist from the Fastvold–Corbet household — with its ecstatic, convulsive worship-dance numbers becoming the images everyone screenshots and argues over.

Where it stands

Too young for canon but already a Letterboxd cause: the big-swing, seen-it-in-70mm art musical that cinephiles champion precisely because almost nobody bought a ticket.

Named by the director

Influences Mona Fastvold has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• The Age of Innocence (1993) — Fastvold cited its painterly matte-painted New York vistas as the model for using hand-painted glass mattes instead of digital effects.