For Mona Fastvold’s film about the Shaker founder, Daniel Blumberg reworked hymns, composed songs, and led a sizable chorus to mimic speaking in tongues. It’s ambitious but ultimately overbearing.
Formed in England in the mid-1600s, the Religious Society of Friends became known for the tremors and convulsions that would overtake its members during prayer. These “quakes” were not, they believed, handed down from on high, but emerged from the inside out — a blasphemy that saw members of the fledgling sect thrown into prison or run out of town.
…In The Testament of Ann Lee, Shakers shake. Mona Fastvold’s film stars Amanda Seyfried as the founder of the religious movement…