Format: Streaming video from Peacock on Fire!
My undergrad degree is in English literature. What this means is that there are times when I know at least some of what is going to happen in a movie. You can’t be much of an English student without knowing something of the life of William Shakespeare. Because of this, while I didn’t know exactly where we were going with Hamnet, I at least knew one or two of the major plot points. In this case, that doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the film, but it does mean that there will be people who are shocked at a particular moment that I spent a large part of the film expecting.
With Hamnet, named after Shakespeare’s son (both the movie and the play), we’re not getting a new filmed version of Hamlet, but sort of the story of its creation. This is much more the story of Shakespeare’s (Paul Mescal) tumultuous family life and his tormented relationship with his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley). This was something that surprised me—traditionally, Shakespeare’s wife is recorded as Anne, but no matter.
We’re introduced first to Agnes, who is presented to us as something of a forest witch. William Shakespeare works as a tutor, but is enchanted by her. Soon they are a couple, Agnes is pregnant and cast out by her family, and is wed to Shakespeare, who it turns out is not very good at the family trade of glove making. We also get a little bit of fortune telling by Agnes—future success for William, and for her, two children at her death bed.
Agnes gives birth to Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), and soon finds herself pregnant a second time. William, at this point, spends his time in London, working on his theatrical career. Agnes gives birth to Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes), who is initially stillborn, but recovers and survives, seeming to stand in the face of Agnes’s prophecy of two children at her death bed.
We flash forward to Shakespeare’s success in the theater, living in London and coming home intermittently to Stratford to spend time with his family. During one of his times in London, the plague starts to spread and he rushes home to discover, well, the inevitable, and from there, the crux of his relationship with his wife and ultimately, the creation of what is widely (and correctly) considered the greatest drama in history.
To be blunt, Hamnet does pretty much everything right. I’m a bit surprised that Paul Mescal hasn’t gotten a great deal of play come award season, because this is awfully good work on his part. It’s also worth bringing up young Jacobi Jupe, who is tremendous in his role at a very young age. But, and this will not surprise you if you are paying attention to Oscar talk and awards in general, this is Jessie Buckley’s film from the opening frame to the close before the credits. Buckley inhabits Agnes like a real, lived-in person, someone who, while a fictionalized version of a real person, feels like a real person. A lot of this comes from the screenplay, of course, but most of this is Jessie Buckley.
What Hamnet does is that it makes William Shakespeare a real person in a way that he really isn’t in a lot of respects. In the modern world, Shakespeare is more of a brand than he is a human being—he’s the guy who wrote all of those classic plays that we were forced to read in high school. But he never feels like just a guy who had failures and pain and problems. Hamnet gives us that.
} I think it’s a shame that in a lot of cases, we sort of know who is going to win which award. Jessie Buckley is as close to a lock as we get for Best Actress, but somehow Chloé Zhao barely registers for Best Director. Why? Because I think the Academy has decided that Paul Thomas Anderson gets his Oscar this year. But Zhao’s work here is impeccable. Hamnet moves at the perfect pace. It is real, and yet in places feels like a dream, the way a good story should. It’s hard to call Chloé Zhao underrated when she’s one of just three women to ever win Best Director, abut movies like Hamnet are exactly why she is in that small club.
If there is a problem here, it’s that I don’t know how rewatchable Hamnet really is. There is a story that it wants to tell, and it tells the story beautifully. But this is not a happy story, even if it is ultimately life-affirming. I will say that the final 15-20 minutes are as good, as meaningful, and as powerful a film conclusion as I have seen in a long time. This comes from Zhao, of course, but also the stellar performances all around, and the brilliant cinematography.
Also, if you’ve never seen a good adaptation of Hamlet, you should. It’s considered the greatest drama in the world for a reason.
Why to watch Hamnet: You should watch everything Chloé Zhao does.
Why not to watch: If you know your English lit, you know where this is going.
