2020's movie business has got to hell and back again and at this point, we don't really know when it will be back to anything close to normal. If 2020 were a "normal" year, then right about now, as the summer movie season is coming to an end, is when we would start to get our first looks at the films expected to compete for major awards, and while it's unclear exactly how all that is going to work out this year, those movies are still coming. Case in point, Ammonite, a new film that co-stars Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in a romantic drama that is clearly aiming for awards season.
The first trailer for Ammonite has dropped which gives us Saoirse Ronan as a woman whose husband is hoping a change of scenery and a bit of work will help her deal with depression, and Kate Winslet is a fossil hunter who takes her in. However, what develops between them is much more personal. Check out the trailer below.
Ammonite is an extinct sea creature and thus the title makes reference to the vocation of Kate Winslet's character, Mary Anning. She appears to be well known as a hunter of fossils, which is probably no small feat for a woman in the 1840s, when the movie is set. Saoirse Ronan begins to work for Anning because her husband believes it will help her "melancholia." Though it seems perhaps the reason his wife is so depressed is that she's dealing with the fact that her life is heading down a path other than the one she wants.
Considering the time period this relationship is certainly going to be one with complications. In addition to the gender dynamic, it also seems that the age difference could be a factor, as Saoirse Ronan's character seems to be full of a youthful exuberance regarding her new life. Kate Winslet's character seems to be more pragmatic about it all. Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet have 11 Oscar nominations between them and if you were going to cast a period drama about a forbidden romance between two women, I can't think of two actresses better for the task.
We'll likely start to see several trailers for more movies like Ammonite in the coming weeks and months. While this fall's movie season is sure to be just as unusual as the summer, it does appear that movies will be opening in traditional ways, even if that only happens in limited locations and with social distancing measures in place.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and other organizations have modified their rules this year to allow movies that debuted via digital platforms to be considered for awards. At this point, one assumes that a movie like Ammonite, set to open November 13, will get a theatrical release, but with so much potentially changing between now and November, who knows?
