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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0c0bc45a_4104_450c_b1a3_cc9f4cf3c2d4.jpeg]]
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3''Ammonite'' is a 2020 British romantic {{Period Drama}} starring Creator/KateWinslet and Creator/SaoirseRonan, directed by Creator/FrancisLee.
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5Acclaimed yet unrecognized 19th century self-taught paleontologist and fossil collector Mary Anning (Winslet) lives on the southern coast of England in Lyme Regis (near what is now known as the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Coast 'Jurassic Coast']]) working alone collecting and selling common fossils to tourists in order to support herself and her elderly mother, but a chance job offer changes her life when an upper class couple arrive from London, when the husband asks Mary to care for his grieving wife Charlotte (Ronan) and to show her how she collects fossils the two begin to develop feelings for each other and form a romantic relationship.
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7!! Tropes
8* AgeGapRomance:
9** Mary appears to be significantly older than Charlotte (Winslet was forty-five at the time ''Ammonite'' was filmed, while Ronan was twenty-six).
10** [[spoiler:Mary is also revealed to have had an ill-fated previous relationship with Elizabeth Philpot, who is twenty years ''her'' senior.]]
11* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Mary and Charlotte's romance. In reality, there's no evidence Mary and Charlotte were anything but close friends. Further, Mary is portrayed as much older than Charlotte (to match the actress's ages). Charlotte was actually a decade older than Mary.
12* BookEnds: The movie opens with an Icthyosaurus fossil being put on display in the British Museum. [[spoiler: the movie ends with Mary and Charlotte reconnecting while observing that same fossil]].
13* CityMouse: Charlotte is an upper-class lady who is unaccustomed to all the work in Mary Anning's fossil-hunting lifestyle.
14* CountryMouse: Mary Anning is a middle-class self-made woman who spends her days combing the beaches for fossils, and [[spoiler: feels out of place when she visits London to see her fossils on display, and balks at the notion of being Charlotte's live-in girlfriend]].
15* DefrostingIceQueen: Mary is quite the grump until Charlotte comes into her life (and stays there for a while - it's almost an hour into the runtime of the movie that Charlotte first coaxes a smile out of her).
16-->[[spoiler:'''Elizabeth''']]: It seems your Mrs. Murchinson has unlocked something in you that I couldn't.
17* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After Mary and Charlotte spend the night in bed together for the first time, Mary is seen the next morning furiously polishing a mirror.
18* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Charlotte falls ill with a fever after coming down with hypothermia, and Mary (in whose shop Charlotte fell unconscious) ends up taking care of her. Mary and Charlotte fall in love after this.
19* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: In the ending, [[spoiler:Mary discovers some of her fossils on display in a museum, but she was not given any credit for finding them.]]
20* GreenEyedMonster: Mary has a moment where she's like this during a concert hosted by a Doctor, seeing Charlotte seated a couple rows in front of her with another woman. Mary goes home rather than raise a fuss.
21* HairyGirl: Kate Winslet grew her underarm hair out for this film, since it takes place decades before the majority of Western women began shaving their body hair.
22* HistoricalRelationshipOverhaul: This film depicts 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning and geologist Charlotte Murchison as being in a lesbian relationship; while Anning was unmarried throughout her life Murchison was married to fellow geologist Roderick Impey Murchison. In addition, the film makes Anning older than Murchison though the reverse was true in real life.
23* IncurableCoughOfDeath: [[spoiler: Mary's mother starts coughing up blood halfway through the second act. She dies in the middle of the third]].
24* ItsNotYouItsMe:
25** [[spoiler: Mary's ex-girlfriend Elizabeth all but says this in their scene together following the death of Mary's mother]].
26** [[spoiler: Mary herself gives this excuse when Charlotte gifts Mary a spare bedroom in her London townhouse, offering to let Mary be her live-in girlfriend. Mary is too tied to her beach-side fossil hunting to take the offer seriously]].
27* {{Limerick}}: Mary recites one of the BawdySong variety for Charlotte's amusement:
28-->'''Charlotte:''' Say it again. Please?
29-->'''Mary:''' There was a young woman named Sally \
30Who loved the occasional dally \
31She sat on the lap \
32Of a well-endowed chap \
33And she said "Ooh, you're right up my alley!"
34* TheModestOrgasm: Happens to both Mary and Charlotte when they consummate their romance. Charlotte first performs cunnilingus on Mary, who places her right hand over her mouth to muffle her vocalizations; then Mary returns the favor and Charlotte manages to keep herself almost silent, which is lucky for them because she's pressed up against the wall of their room when she climaxes.
35* OldTimeyBathingSuit: Charlotte wears one when she goes for a swim on a cool overcast day, stepping out of a Bathing Machine and into a rough sea.
36** Averted later in the film, when Mary and Charlotte go swimming in their shifts.
37* OscarBait: It's a PeriodPiece QueerRomance starring two of the most critically acclaimed actresses of the 21st century. Rest assured, [[SoOkayItsAverage critics still liked it]] (specifically the performances and chemistry of the two leads) but few would call it one of the best movies of the year.
38* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Mary is the only one of her mother's nine children to have survived childhood.
39** It's heavily implied in dialogue that Charlotte had a baby who died as an infant, which is why she starts the film as a SleepyDepressive.
40* PeriodPiece: The film is set in 1840s England.
41* QueerRomance: Mary and Charlotte fall in love, having a clandestine affair.
42* SignificantWardrobeShift: Charlotte starts the film in black mourning dress, before shifting to whites, tans, and greens after falling in love with Mary. [[spoiler: Her very last scene has her wearing a black shawl and bonnet over her cream-white dress, after Mary walked away from being her live-in girlfriend]].
43** Mary herself spends most of the time either in worn-out old tomboyish clothes for fossil-hunting, or a light blue plaid dress when at home or in her shop. [[spoiler: she wears a dark blue, almost-black, mourning dress when her mother dies, and wears a dark red dress when she goes to London]].
44* SleepyDepressive: Charlotte starts the movie so depressed she tries to sleep in as much as possible, and has to be prompted out of bed by her husband.
45* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: When Charlotte falls ill, she sleeps in Mary's bed while Mary sleeps in a rocking chair. When the two fall in love, they share the bed.
46* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Mary is the more masculine girl, a somewhat tomboyish fossil hunter, while Charlotte is the more feminine girl, who wears fancier dresses and is more kempt. Downplayed in that Mary still wears dresses, albeit ones that aren't as fancy as Charlotte's.
47* UnkemptBeauty: Mary has stringy hair, doesn't wear makeup, and rarely smiles in the film. It's still not enough to distract from how beautiful Creator/KateWinslet is.

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