For her part, Winslet is really fantastic, breathing sweary and wilful life into Mary. Usually so brilliant, here she’s stuck in a stiff, clammy register that makes it look like she’s entombed in a waxwork of herself, failing to spark chemistry with Winslet. Part of this is down, sadly, to Ronan’s performance.

This plot takes a very long time to get going, and yet it still feels relatively sudden when the romance finally kicks into gear. In Ammonite, Lee takes this history, and adds to it a fictionalised love story, with wealthy gentleman Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) leaving his depressed wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) in Mary’s care, with the hope that brisk sea walks and insights into Mary’s work can bring Charlotte out of her ‘melancholia’. It’s a sentiment that will feel familiar to the audience by that point, with Francis Lee’s second film keeping them at arm’s length throughout, making for a very cold love story that can’t match the rugged passion of his debut, God’s Own Country.Īnning was a real figure, integral to the growing field of palaeontology in the Victorian era, a self-taught pioneer who walked the since-named Jurassic Coast in search of the remains of ancient beasts. ‘It’s like you’re trying to be distant’ a frustrated old flame exclaims to fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) as they reminisce on a failed relationship in one of Ammonite’s climactic moments.

Fire ammonite bait