Review: The gray vistas of 'Ammonite' are hard to love, but Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan make this passionate romance worth a look

The romantic drama “Ammonite” is as hard and as brittle as the fossilized sea creatures that give the film its name. It’s also as beautiful, thanks to the intense collaboration between writer-director Francis Lee and his stars, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.

Winslet plays Mary Anning, an archaeologist who spends her days seeking out fossils near the rocky shore near Dorset, sometime in the 1840s, and selling artifacts in a small shop — where she also lives with her ailing mum, Molly (Gemma Jones). One large fossil Mary found as a girl sits in a case in the British Museum, but otherwise her scientific gifts are ignored by the male-dominated establishment.

One day, a would-be member of that establishment, Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), comes to seek Mary’s tutelage in archaeology. Mary, in need of the money Roderick offers, takes him to the shore for a day and shows him the basics of fossil hunting.

Roderick soon returns, with another proposition: To ask Mary to take on his new wife, the frail Charlotte (played by Ronan) for a few weeks while Roderick goes abroad on an expedition. Again, the Annings need the money, so Mary reluctantly agrees. 

Mary has little use for an apprentice, particularly a sickly young woman, so she’s at first cool to this intruder on her solitude. But over time, something sparks between the taciturn fossil hunter and the delicate new bride — and a passionate, sexually charge romance blooms.

Lee, following up his justly acclaimed 2017 drama “God’s Own Country,” places this story in the rough, gray setting of mid-19th century Dorset, where Mary’s stern demeanor seems pounded into her by the rocks, the surf and the inescapable patriarchy. Mary is so used to disappointment and loneliness that she almost doesn’t know what to do — or say, hence the limited dialogue — when a tender flower like Charlotte enters her life.

That emotional astringency makes it difficult, at times, for a viewer to feel welcome as Mary and Charlotte’s relationship evolves. The keys, we discover, are the paired performances of Winslet and Ronan, who seem to radiate with the palpable magnetism that brings these disparate characters together. Their performances are what provide life within the period reserve of “Ammonite.”

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‘Ammonite’

★★★

Opens Friday, November 13, in theaters where open. Rated R for graphic sexuality, some graphic nudity and brief language. Running time: 118 minutes.