Hamnet (2025)

 

This is an absolute beautiful film about love, loss, family and grief. 

If you decide to watch this film, you must also be prepared to cry. 

What is most beautiful about this film is Jessie Buckley's performance led by Chloe Zhao's direction in which she encouraged her actors to follow all their instincts and led to one of the most poignant displays of grief ever put on film.

Zhao also trusts the silences of life and allowed quiet moments to speak as powerfully as the louder moments.

The film is based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell which is a fictional story that focuses more on Shakespeare's wife Agnes "Anne" Hathaway rather than the famous bard himself.

Not much is known about Hathaway other than the fact she was married to Shakespeare which leaves a lot of room to play with her and flesh out her story.

We do also know that Shakespeare and Hathaway's son Hamnet died at the age of 11 and this is more than likely the catalyst that led Shakespeare to write Hamlet.

Hamnet is Agnes's story.

She was a real person who we know little about.

Zhao and Buckley brough Agnes to life and allowed us to know her beyond being Shakespeare's wife.

We are introduced to Agnes in the forest where she is known by the local villagers as a witch. William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) meets her and is immediately besotted with her and their romance begins after some initial hesitation on her part. 

They marry and eventually Shakespeare moves to London to pursue his career while Agnes stays in Stratford-upon-Avon to raise their three children: Susannah, and twins Hamnet and Judith.

Jessie Buckley instantly captures the audience with her performance. She's wild, free, restrained, understated, and powerful in her portrayal.

The supporting cast are all incredible as well, but I have to give a big shoutout to Jacobi Jupe who played Hamnet and truly captured the painful death.

The shots are absolutely beautiful filled with saturated colors when surrounded by Agnes's beloved forest, but dull and muted to reflect how being indoors makes her feel.

Even knowing the concept the story, it still hits you like a gut punch and you feel everything so viscerally.

This is a slow film in the sense that it allows moments to build to the point where you find yourself completely immersed in the story without trying too hard to draw you in.

This is a beautiful look at grief, motherhood and life as a whole.

4 stars.