'Ammonite' Trailer: Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan Find Love on the 1840s British Shores

[HARDY]

 

The romantic drama from 'God's Own Country' director Francis Lee also stars Gemma Jones, Alec Secareanu and Fiona Shaw and will premiere at the Toronto film festival before being released by Neon in the U.S. and Lionsgate in the U.K.

The first trailer for Neon's Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan-led romantic drama, Ammonite, has arrived.

In the film, Directed by God's Own Country helmer Francis Lee, loneliness and crashing waves serve as a backdrop to a story of a hesitant friendship that softly and subtly blossoms into an unexpected — and overwhelming — romance.

Set on the Southern English coastline of Lyme Regis, this 1840s love story begins with acclaimed paleontologist Mary Anning (Winslet) working in harsh but preferential solitude. Her quiet, somber life is disturbed, however, by the arrival of a young woman named Charlotte (Ronan) and her husband, Roderick Murchison (James McArdle).

With his wife stricken by tragedy and suffering from "melancholia," Roderick offers Mary payment to walk with Charlotte along the shores and keep her busy during this leg of their European journey. Despite not being in the market for an apprentice, Mary does need the money, and so she takes Charlotte along as she traverses daily along the overcast shore, engaging in "cheap tourist fodder."

From two different social and economic circles, the women find themselves in unwanted company, reluctantly connecting as they carry out the less-than-easy work of hunting and collecting common fossils to sell to wealthy tourists. Yet, it's that very distance and difference between them that eventually force both to reconsider their lives and each other.

As quickly trading stolen glances and handholds for deeper physical intimacy comes at a cost, the reality of their social boundaries threatens their passionate romance.

"I don't want to go back to the life I had before you," Charlotte professes before Mary replies, "What about my life?"

Also starring Gemma Jones, Alec Secareanu and Fiona Shaw, Ammonite is written by Lee and produced by Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly. Ammonite will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September and is currently slated to hit theaters on Nov. 13.

Watch the trailer below.