The Testament of Ann Lee Parent Guide
Vast, ecstatic, and sprawling, this film sometimes succeeds in telling its big story, but it does so with plenty of sexual content.
Parent Movie Review
For most Americans, the Shakers are a footnote on the religious landscape, an all-but-forgotten sect remembered only for the minimalist aesthetic that has made their architecture, furniture, and handcrafts enduringly popular. In The Testament of Ann Lee, director Mona Fastvold draws back the curtain on the religion’s founder, and shows how faith, persistence, and trauma fueled the rise of this radical communal group.
In Fastvold’s telling, it’s not hard to trace Ann Lee’s (Amanda Seyfried) subsequent preaching of pacifism and celibacy to her early experiences with poverty, domestic abuse, spousal mistreatment, and neo-natal death. Despite Ann’s sincere desire to bask in the love of God, her life in the poorer sections of 18th century Manchester is one of suffering and pain. Then she discovers a charismatic off shoot of the Quakers, and Ann finds her connection with God through worship meetings featuring ecstatic prayer and dance.
Ann’s religious fervor cannot be contained, and when her public preaching upsets the authorities, she finds herself in a stone prison cell. There she receives visions from God which inspire her fellow believers, who now refer to her as Mother. Determined to find a place where her people can worship God freely and spread the word, Ann announces a move to America.
Life in America isn’t easy for the small group of Shakers who accompany her to New York, but they manage to find new adherents and build communities marked by hard work, plain living, celibacy, and gender equality. They also learn that religious freedom isn’t yet a core American value – and the Shakers will pay a heavy price for their faith.
The Testament of Ann Lee is the polar opposite of the simplicity so beloved of the Shakers. It’s a vast, colorful, percussive, sprawling film. It’s a story of raw emotion, of trauma and pain, transmuted into religious observances in which music and dance provide the opportunity for release. It’s also a story of devotion – devotion to God and to family, particularly demonstrated in the relationship between Ann and her younger brother, William (Lewis Pullman), who becomes one of her most loyal adherents. Cinema fans will appreciate the superb acting, particularly by Ms. Seyfried, that fills this tale with so much passion, agony and exuberant life. This is a strange film, but it’s also an ambitious one that attempts to illuminate a fascinating but little-known part of human experience.
The production’s soaring ambition does come with some flaws. It’s overlong, clocking in at two-and-a-quarter hours. Trimming it by twenty minutes or so would improve pacing and make the story more bladder-friendly for theatrical audiences. It also has a wildly inconsistent soundtrack: the simple Shaker hymns are hauntingly beautiful and some of the large set pieces are moving, but the percussive soundscape is simply abrasive. Negative content is also an issue, with violent acts of religious persecution, including a particularly horrific mob attack in which a church is torched, men and women beaten, and a woman’s skirt is ripped off and her genitals inspected. There is also plenty of sexual content, including a side view of a married couple having sex (which is witnessed by their child), scenes of a man whipping his clearly suffering wife before having sex with her, and a post-coital homosexual scene. Many of these feature buttock nudity and even some visible breasts. The Restricted rating is well deserved by this film.
The graphic nature of the sexual content is unfortunate because The Testament of Ann Lee is a fascinating, speculative look, not just at the founding of one faith, but of the many ways a religious impulse can manifest itself. It might not be the way I see God, but it’s certainly interesting to understand the Shaker perspective a little bit better.
Directed by Mona Fastvold. Starring Amanda Seyfried, Lewis Pullman, Thomasin McKenzie. Running time: 137 minutes. Theatrical release January 23, 2026. Updated January 24, 2026About author
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The Testament of Ann Lee
Rating & Content Info
Why is The Testament of Ann Lee rated R? The Testament of Ann Lee is rated R by the MPAA for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence and bloody images.
Violence: A father whips his child’s hands and the camera shows the pain on her face. A woman is attacked and thrown in a cell. Mobs attack a worship service, burning the building, tying up and beating some of the men, beating women, and ripping off a woman’s skirt to examine her genitals. Bloody wounds are seen. Some of the victims later die or are injured: one loses the sight in one eye. People are in peril during a storm at sea. There’s mention of the death of four babies. A woman confesses to a brief desire to kill her child. A main character’s dead body is seen as it is cleaned and then placed in a coffin. A slave auction is briefly seen.
Sexual Content: A child observes her parents having sex: there is visible side nudity. A man forces his wife on all fours, then spanks her bare buttocks and insists on sex. A man whips the back of his naked wife: her breasts and buttocks are visible from the side. A man gropes his wife, demands sex, and threatens to drink himself to death. There is a brief scene of a clothed couple having sex up against a wall. A man insists that a woman perform oral sex. A person has a vision of a naked Adam and Eve in a sexual context. A man confesses to being aroused by the sight of his naked sister, who happens to be a child. A woman’s bloody groin is briefly visible in a childbirth scene. A woman’s breast is visible as she tries to encourage a baby to nurse. There’s mention of clergy sexual abuse and a brief look at a picture. A woman’s dead body is seen from the back (with some view of her breast) as it’s prepared for burial.
Profanity: None.
Alcohol / Drug Use: There’s mention of wine.
Page last updated January 24, 2026
The Testament of Ann Lee Parents' Guide
How historically accurate is the film? You can find out by checking out these sites:
Slate: What’s Fact and Fiction in The Testament of Ann Lee
Time: The True Story Behind The Testament of Ann Lee and the Birth of the Shakers
Shaker Heritage Society of Albany, New York: History of the Shakers
Shaker Village: