ronan

From the beginning, Ammonite wants audiences to know that the work of paleontologist Mary Anning is out of fashion. Mary, played by a particularly stoic Kate Winslet, says this repeatedly to other characters, and displays an almost aggressive wariness toward any tourist who hints at an interest in her career. The film similarly revels in the daily monotony of her life, which appears to consist of digging through rocks no one else gives a second glance, a lonely figure on a gray beach. Presumably writer-director Francis Lee wishes to underscore the solitude of Anning’s work; yet it’s not clear if…