Agnes Hathaway, the elusive heroine of director Chloe Zhao’s new film, hamnet, She is happiest when she is in nature: going to the woods as often as possible, collecting mushrooms, hiding in tree hollows to sleep. She spends so much time outside that a rumor spreads in her English village that her mother is a witch. This is a credible claim; Agnes, as played by actress Jessie Buckley, is raw, thoughtful, and fundamentally mysterious. The first part of the film uncovers her secret, attracting a lover better known than practically any other in the 16th century: William Shakespeare.
When Agnes meets him, Shakespeare (played by Paul Mescal) is an equally promiscuous creature in Stratford-upon-Avon. He soon falls under her spell, unaware that this is the woman he will marry and have three children with. As a historical tale, Hamnett There is nothing else to go by: archival records reveal only basic facts about their relationship. Shakespeare married Agnes, also known as Anne, in 1582 when he was 18 and she was 26. They had three children, first a daughter and then boy-girl twins; His son Hamnet died of unknown causes in 1596. The film is based on the 2020 novel by author Maggie O’Farrell, a fictional work that imagines the grief Shakespeare and his wife felt after losing their son. O’Farrell’s story is based on the theory of drama small village It is a reflection of that grief – a mystery put into perhaps the most famous dramatic work ever written.
Zhao’s adaptation, at its best, embraces the anonymity of this premise. One record offers an observation from Shakespeare’s time – that the names Hamnet and Hamlet were considered interchangeable. from there, Hamnett Embraces the poetry of that scary coincidence. Zhao depicts Shakespeare as a moody writer. In contrast, his wife is an independent spirit, affected to some degree by love, marriage, parenthood, and ultimately bereavement. A lot of sadness.
Hamnett It’s a sad watch, far more nakedly emotional and weepy than Zhao’s other films (including the wonderful neo-Western rideroscar winning drama nomadic landand marvel curio eternalBuckley endures intense crisis on screen without losing his character’s humanity, and Mescal transforms his vulnerable charm into something more haunted as Shakespeare grapples with aging and loss. But the film can also seem punitive, and I struggled to connect with both of its primary notions. small village There is a quiet confession of personal suffering by its author—and central partnership. In his first, most romantic act, Hamnett Is charming and imaginary; Agnes wanders the lush forests of Warwickshire, and begins a sweet, strange courtship with Shakespeare. However, after Agnes becomes pregnant, the couple’s families gratefully bless their union, and the newlywed couple go through an endless stream of suffering to reach the end of the story.
more than Hamnett It either contains painful scenes of childbirth or even more painful scenes of children’s illness. Hamnet (Jacoby Jupe), who actually died at the age of 11, is struck by the plague; His twin sister also catches it, although she survives. Their parents’ emotional connection, which initially drove the film, largely falls apart as they endure their children’s grief. Traumatic episodes lock characters in small, dark rooms for long periods of time, creating a feeling of constant claustrophobia. There is a point to that specific discomfort: Agnes, after the death of her son, realizes that she is trapped in domesticity. Meanwhile, her husband moves in and out of the city, plying his opaque business. Yet this is the 16th century, and the viewer knows what his business is to be william shakespeareIt’s hard to ignore the references to his legacy, even if the film isn’t based on it. Buckley plays Agnes’s unhappiness at living in captivity very well, and effectively conveys her son’s extraordinary heartbreak. There’s no nuance to her suffering – it feels like it’s mostly a sign on the way to the end of the film.
The ending is undoubtedly hard to shake. Zhao beautifully recreates the dramatic conventions of the era when Agnes attends a performance small villageAn excited Agnes interprets the deeper meaning in her husband’s play that no one else can see, Even in cinema, there’s nothing like seeing a Shakespeare play charmingly performed on stage, and there’s no better meditation than a soliloquy on mortality, small village Self. Pianist Max Richter’s score also brims with emotion; Zhao uses his most famous tune, “On the Nature of Daylight”, which has appeared in many great films, including arrival And shutter IslandHowever, for all its powerful ingredients, Hamnett The rings are slightly hollow at its core. Perhaps grand tragedies are so overwhelming that it is impossible for some viewers to look beyond them. I cried, yes, but in the end, I didn’t feel close to the mysterious Bard — let alone the people he loved hundreds of years ago.
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