Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan team up for same-sex romantic drama Ammonite, originally due out last year but now being released on home entertainment services including Prime Video and Sky Store this Friday.
In the film, from God's Own Country's Francis Lee, Winslet stars as British palaeontologist Mary Anning, who starts a romantic relationship with geologist colleague Charlotte Murchison, played by Ronan.
The movie has raised some eyebrows for speculating about the sexuality of the real-life 19th century scientists, but what did the movie critics have to say about Ammonite? Scroll on to find out!
The Times
As cold and flat as a stone: "Acting titans Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are all dressed up with nothing to do in this disappointing melodrama about finding love among the fossils... the characters are so underwritten and the performances so minimal that most scenes unfold static tableaux that are as lifeless as the ossified molluscs that fill Anning's cabinets."
The Guardian
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan find love among the fossils: "Ammonite is an absorbing drama that sensationally brings together two superlative performers: Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet. Combining these alpha players doubles or actually quadruples the screen voltage, and their passion co-exists with the cool, calm subtlety with which Lee inspects the domestic circumstances in which their paths crossed."
The Independent
Kate Winslet is ferocious in this lesbian period romance: "Winslet is ferocious here – a performance that's powered by steam locomotive, made unstoppable. Ronan, meanwhile, puts aside her headstrong characters in Little Women and Lady Bird. Here, she wilts."
Empire
A fine feat in British filmmaking craft: "It's Winslet... who defines the film, delivering the performance that you've wanted from her for years. Stripped of any significant backstory, she moves intently from moment to moment with a broad, assured physicality that is both remarkable and rarely celebrated on screen. Another tenderly executed triumph from Francis Lee, and a captivating, serrated starring performance from Kate Winslet. Ammonite is a fine feat in British filmmaking craft."
Variety
However Committed, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan Can't Spark Sodden Lesbian Romance: "Ammonite is linear but low-key, relying on audiences' ability to appreciate the subtle, subtextual cues Winslet and Ronan transmit via body language, especially as propriety holds their tongue. Ultimately more symbolic than satisfying, the project leaves one grateful that two stars of this caliber would take on such a story, while wishing their efforts had left us with a more resonant artifact."
Rolling Stone
Love on the Rocks: "It gives us what we ask for: the glimpses of voracious, exploratory sex between these women, the reminders of the limits that make their love impossible to imagine, the complicated gazes such women throw one another in lieu of saying aloud what cannot be said. What we don't get is a real sense of those inner chambers evoked by its title: a richer curiosity about the story's own absences. What Ammonite needs is to dig deeper and imagine more — to find a Mary Anning of its own to excavate what's hidden inside it."
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