By Bob Grimm <\/p>\n
Amanda Seyfried is underrated\u2014in fact, she is one of today\u2019s most excellent actresses. She\u2019s in possession of impeccable comic timing (Mean Girls), dramatic heft (The Housemaid, a newly released film that is demented and fun) and a beautiful singing voice (Les Mis\u00e9rables).<\/p>\n
The Testament of Ann Lee\u00a0calls upon those strong acting chops and that singing voice\u2014but not so much the comic timing. It brandishes a solemn tone with strongly choreographed (and somewhat gloomy) musical numbers in telling the story of Ann Lee (Seyfried), one of the founders of the Shakers religion.<\/p>\n
A quick history lesson: The Shakers originated in England in the 1700s and moved to America, settling in Watervilet, now known as Colonie, N.Y. (Colonie has a pretty nice shopping mall these days; it\u2019s equipped with a Whole Foods, a Macy\u2019s, and an L.L. Bean!).<\/p>\n
They were originally called \u201cthe Shaking Quakers\u201d because of their tendency to get down movement-wise during worship sessions, but eventually shortened their name to Shakers, because it looked better on an album cover. Wikipedia says the religion, as of 2025, had three devout members left in it. (Seriously.<\/a>) Party!<\/p>\n The film, directed by Mona Fastvold, takes us back to those rollicking mid-1700s, when Ann Lee\u2019s religious ideals were heavily gestating, leading up to when she led the sect in New York. Lee\u2019s tribulations, including the deaths of her children and prison stays, result in an unrelenting, dark tone. The musical numbers are both daring and beautiful, while sustaining a certain eeriness. Seyfried shines throughout.<\/p>\n The film pays tribute, in a way, to the dedication to one\u2019s beliefs, no matter how extreme those beliefs might be. (Lee and her followers believed she was the second coming of Christ.) It\u2019s safe to say\u00a0The Testament of Ann Lee\u00a0is unlike anything you\u2019ve seen before. It\u2019s also safe to say that Seyfried is a performer who deserves our undivided attention. The film is currently playing at Sacramento\u2019s Tower Theater<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bob Grimm Amanda Seyfried is underrated\u2014in fact, she is one of today\u2019s most excellent actresses. She\u2019s in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[75116,121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-152341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-review-of-the-testament-of-ann-lee","9":"tag-sacramento","10":"tag-sacramento-headlines","11":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}