Director: Mona Fastvold
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin
Have I Seen it Before: Never.
Did I Like It: This is going to sound like I am damning with faint praise, but if I just happened to be a Shaker, this would quite obviously have been the best film ever made.
And yet, I am not. So it’s going to have to be something other than that.
I’m always a little leery of a pointedly religious film. A sermon is one thing. A film is another. When a sermon is working at its best, it has to tell us something. When a film is working at its best, it has to show us something. The two are at odds with one another.
Here, we are clearly shown something, and the moments where Mother Ann (Seyfried) experiences religious ecstasy are exquisitely produced. I don’t for one moment doubt Seyfried’s performance.
And yet, I’m left to wonder. Are we supposed to feel as Shakers do when the film is unfurling before our eyes? I don’t think I’m any more interested in a life of celibacy after having watched the film than I was before seeing it. I can’t help but wonder if the way the Shakers… er, shake… is nothing more than theater trying to paper over oceans of doubt. Is Ann deluded for thinking that she is the second coming? Are the Shakers doomed* as an ongoing concern if they’re dead-set on not making any new Shakers? Are all religious movements merely byproducts of their charismatic leader’s hangups and trauma**?
If I’m think about these films, has the film really worked its magic on me? Perhaps an even better question is: Is its magic even meant for me?
*Stick around for the end credits. They are, indeed, doomed.
*I mean, probably.