Based on the 2020 book of the same name, “Hamnet” is a reimagining of the life of William Shakespeare, focused on his family and the making of the play Hamlet.
The movie really centers on Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley, who is just incredible. With such an emotional movie, it can be really easy for actors to overact and make scenes come across as a bit cringeworthy, but that is not a problem for anyone in this.
What is the most shocking part of it is just how great the child actors are. Some of the best I have ever seen in a movie, it is remarkable how good they are, especially Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet. This goes for all the kids, however, and Zhao does an unbelievable job making all of them deliver an excellent performance.
Paul Mescal as Shakespeare works for the most part, but once this movie shifts to the play of Hamlet, it becomes much less interesting overall. The love story in the first half is so moving, and it is pretty beautiful and it makes you fully buy into the story. Then, when the tragedy happens, it is one of the saddest scenes of the year. Buckley, in the second act of this movie, is so incredible and her performance alone nearly moved me to tears on a few separate occasions. She makes the film as good as it is.
After that, however, the movie meanders and becomes way less interesting. Buckley is still incredible, but the film around her slowly gets worse. Unfortunately, the play itself is just nowhere near as good as the rest of the movie, so it is kind of an unsatisfying ending, as it keeps building to this event, but once you reach it, it doesn’t really hit as hard as it needs to.
Even though this is the sort of heart-tugging, crier that the Oscars are known to love, it rises above just being the standard “Oscar bait” that we see every year. This starts with Zhao’s direction, as she is doing some really fascinating things. The way that the camera lingers, whether that be on the forest trees or a wall of a house, is exciting. The way Zhao films distance is also quite remarkable; the camera is not really ever extremely close until a few select moments in the film. Even the sex scene has the camera placed at a distance.
Overall, “Hamnet” is two-thirds of an excellent movie. Buckley is flat-out phenomenal and completely makes the movie. However, once the film pivots towards the play Hamlet, it kinda fizzles out. The first two acts are so good, though, that it is hard not to recommend this film still.
7/10
