Ammonite (2020) – The Lesbian Film That Actually Feels Real
Let’s be honest: most “lesbian” movies Hollywood gives us are either tragic, watered-down, or made for straight people to feel progressive for two hours. Then comes Ammonite and suddenly we’re breathing different air. This isn’t Carol with its perfect coats and whispered glances (though I love Carol). This is dirty fingernails, salty skin, awkward silences, and sex that looks like two women who actually want to rip each other’s clothes off. Finally.
Kate Winslet plays Mary Anning, the real-life 19th-century fossil hunter who was basically discovered half the dinosaurs we know about but got erased from history because… woman. In the film, she’s in her 40s, broke, bitter, living with her elderly mother in a cold house by the sea in Lyme Regis. She barely speaks, barely smiles, and honestly? Same, Mary, same.
Then Saoirse Ronan shows up as Charlotte, a rich married woman dumped on Mary by her husband so she can “recover” from whatever vague melancholy rich Victorian wives had. Charlotte is soft where Mary is hard, young where Mary is weathered, and from the first moment they lock eyes you can feel the electricity crackling.
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The slow burn in this movie is criminal. I’m talking weeks of barely touching, accidental brushes of hands, staring at each other across the dinner table like they want to eat each other alive. When they finally kiss? I had to pause the film to scream into a pillow. And when they finally have sex? Listen, I’ve seen a lot of lesbian sex scenes. Most of them are shot like the camera is embarrassed to be there. Ammonite says fuck that. Francis Lee (the director, and yes he’s gay) films it raw, hungry, messy, loud. You see everything. You feel everything. There’s no soft lighting to make it “tasteful.” It’s two women who have been starved for touch their entire lives finally getting to feast. I cried. Multiple times.
What makes Ammonite hit different is that it never explains itself to straight people. There’s no “I’ve never felt this way before” monologue. Mary and Charlotte don’t sit around talking about how forbidden their love is. They just live it. They fight. They fuck. They hurt each other. They heal each other. It feels like watching something private you weren’t supposed to see, in the best way possible.
Kate Winslet is giving the performance of her career. She’s grumpy, closed-off, terrifyingly intelligent, and so deeply lonely it hurts to watch. You can see decades of being invisible written into every line on her face. And Saoirse? She starts off fragile and porcelain-doll-like, but by the end she’s matching Mary’s intensity stroke for stroke. Their chemistry is insane. Like, I forget they’re acting.
The film doesn’t give us a fairy-tale ending, and thank God for that. This isn’t a movie about “love conquers all.” It’s about love existing in a world that wants to crush it, and choosing it anyway. That final scene at the British Museum? I’m not crying, you’re crying.
If you’re a lesbian who’s tired of movies where we die, or get left, or only exist to teach someone else a lesson… watch Ammonite. Watch it with your girlfriend. Watch it alone with a bottle of wine and tissues. Just watch it.
This is the lesbian film we’ve been begging for. Not perfect, not polite, not made for awards season pats on the back. Just real. Just ours.
Seriously, go watch it right now. I’ll wait.
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