'Ammonite' Trailer: Kate Winslet And Saoirse Ronan Find Fossils (And Love) On The Beach

Maybe it's because many of our traditional activities are still verboten due to the pandemic, but there's a bit of a heightened thrill in seeing two movie characters engage in a forbidden romance right now. God's Own Country director Francis Lee was able to entice two of the film industry's best working actresses – Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan – to explore a sweepingly romantic love story in Ammonite, his lesbian romance drama set in the 1840s. The film is now available to watch both at home and in theaters, and to mark the occasion, distributor Neon has released a brand new trailer that you can check out below.

The film has earned mixed reviews thus far from critics, including our own who saw it at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. "As the warmth between the two [main characters] grows in small yet inevitable ways, it feels like a kind of romantic perambulation, a kind of gentle journey akin to the walks along the beach," our review states. "The result at times vacillates between the moving and frustrating, as it dilutes whatever connection these two characters are supposedly sharing under the burden of the austere storytelling. Similarly, when sparks truly do fly, it feels forced, as if the rush of thrusting bodies is meant to deliver a catharsis that hasn't fully been earned."

But for whatever reason, audiences have given the film a warmer reception: it currently sits at 69% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but as of this writing, it has an 84% audience score. So if you're in the mood to bathe yourself in a film that looks like how New England clam chowder smells, you now have the option of watching it at home without needing to don a hazmat suit and head out to your local theater.

Lee wrote the script and directed the film, while Gemma Jones (Sense and Sensibility, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), James McArdle (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, On the Road), Alec Secareanu (Strike Back, Amulet), and Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve, the Harry Potter franchise) round out the rest of the cast.

Here is the film's official synopsis:

1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.

Ammonite is available on premium on demand platforms and in theaters right now.