A brand new trailer for Francis Lee’s Ammonite has just arrived, and if we’re going by this short clip, the movie is already set to rise that heady ascent into the realm of highly revered and delicious queer period drama. Period dramas, you see, always tend to be dead boring, unless the Ls, Gs, Bs and Ts get involved. Wuthering Heights? CBA. Carol? Iconic. The King’s Speech? Boring. Maurice? J’adore! Next up: Ammonite.
The movie, set on the South Coast of England in the 1800s, captures the life of the legendary palaeontologist Mary Anning, played by Kate Winslet, as she’s offered a healthy sum of money to look after a woman, Charlotte Murchison, who’s suffering from a dreadful bout of melancholy — that’s Saoirse. As she scours the shores of Lyme Regis, looking for fossils to dust up (is that what palaeontology is idk), she finds herself falling for her reserved and beautiful new companion.
The film, directed by the man behind God’s Own Country Francis Lee, has already racked up a ton of really positive reviews: The Guardian called it “sensational”; The Telegraph, “one of the finest films of the year”. And after the last trailer dropped a month or two ago, a new one — specifically for UK audiences but available to watch worldwide — gives us a closer look into the relationship between Kate and Saoirse’s characters.
Notable moments? Well, there’s a kiss of course. Lots of bits by the sea, including one in which Kate and Saoirse wade out into it as the sun bursts through the landscape behind them, illuminating their bodies. Also, expect to see Saoirse in a beautiful ball gown, which we can only imagine is a brilliant piece of foreshadowing for the Oscars red carpet, when she will finally win that Best Actress statue she has long deserved. Ammonite is released in the US next month, and will hit UK cinemas in early 2021. God bless the gay Saoirse Ronan movie.