By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"HAMNET"-- THE SHAKESPEARE TRAGEDY BEHIND THE TRAGEDY
"Hamnet," from director
Chloe Zhao ("Nomadland" and "Eternals") is one of those rare cinematic experiences that feels both whisper-quiet and emotionally seismic.
Working from
Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel of the same name, Zhao shapes a lyrical, earthbound portrait of Agnes Hathaway and William Shakespeare as more than historical icons. They are a couple suspended between love, loss, and the unspoken wounds that time never fully heals.
Jessie Buckley ("Wicked Little Letters") and Paul Mescal ("Gladiator II" and "Merrily We Roll Along") bring a remarkable intimacy to their roles. Buckley plays Agnes with a raw, elemental intuition, while Mescal uses stillness and subtlety to convey the suffocating weight of a father--William Shakespeare--undone by tragedy.
Together, they create a marriage that feels lived-in, tender, and painfully human.
At the center of all this sorrow is Jacobi Jupe (TV's "Before") as young Hamnet Shakespeare. His performance is just dynamic. Jupe captures the boy's fragility and curiosity with such truth that his absence becomes a presence of its own, an echo haunting every frame that follows.
Zhao's restrained direction allows the audience to feel this grief through silence, glances, and the small ruptures that reshape a family's world. The movie kind of moves like a memory, soft around the edges, yet cutting in its emotional clarity.
There is a heartbreaking moment in "Hamnet" when William (Mescal) is away in London pursuing his writing and place in the theater world and learns that while his daughter Judith (Olivia Lynes, debut) survived a bout of the Plague, Hamnet succumbed to it. The realization that he wasn't there as their son suffered and died in agony shatters Agnes, leaving her grief-stricken and furious in a way that forever alters their marriage.
The supporting cast, including Emily Watson ("The Legend of Ochi") as William's mother and Joe Alwyn ("The Brutalist") as Agnes' brother Bartholomew, is conveyed with palpable conviction.
Visually, Zhao leans into natural light and wide, patient shots, creating a sense of the English countryside as both sanctuary and tomb.
The screenplay captures the beauty of O'Farrell's prose while deepening the connection between personal tragedy and Shakespeare's later artistic triumph.
"Hamnet" is one of the year's most affecting dramas. It's an ode to love, loss, and the art created in their wake. To see or not to see? There's no question, you'll want to see this one.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Go Ahead And Watch This Trailer For
"HAMNET"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
