Hamnet Review
Heartbreaking and completely life affirming in equal measure, Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet is wonderful cinema - anchored by two tremendous and towering lead performances.
Will (Paul Mescal) meets the wild Agnes (Jessie Buckley) while tutoring her siblings, and they form an immediate bond and connection. Falling in love, they start a family - eventually have two daughters, and a son (Hamnet - played by Jacobi Jupe). But when tragedy befalls them, they find themselves at odds. Will buries himself in his work, and as the days, months and years fall between them, Agnes eventually receives an invite to see that work - the play Hamlet.
Hamnet starts quite slower paced, and to be fully honest having heard an inkling about what the film covered and what the eventual heartbreak would be, I was skeptical that Zhao would be able to make me feel for this couple and eventual family the way that one would need to in order to have such an emotional reaction. But feel, we did.
The initial romance set amongst the wonderfully historic era set pieces feels quiet, a little odd, but also deeply of its time. Agnes is immediately interesting and thrilling, and she and Will have a unique bond that captures the imagination. The family unit later on introduced is also engaging; from the daily rituals of Agnes and her daughters, to the swashbuckling, play acting bond between Will and his son Hamnet, every scene feels lived in and special.
Visually, the film is unique again. In a landscape of fast-paced, perfectly lit but grey and bland films, Hamnet sits apart thanks to Zhao’s typical visual favour of natural lighting and the real world. Her interiors are gorgeously lit, but perhaps a little less forgiving for the darker tones than other material may be, and her exteriors feel achingly realistic - as if someone just walked out and happened to switch their camera on while their neighbours Will and Agnes were running by. It sets the entire film apart from much of the modern array of content we receive in theatres today.
That being said, when it’s needed, Zhao can push into the highly artistic and this she does to great effect at multiple points during the film. From the subtle, with Hamnet looking up into the camera during a nighttime plague scene, to the more overt, with Will taking the stage as the ghostly apparition in a gorgeous costume during the inaugural show of Hamlet, Zhao masters the art of creating enduring images by using them sparingly.
Ultimately, though, as much as one can praise the direction, cinematography, art design or script here, what really sets this movie apart is the performance from the two leads. Mescal is wonderful as a young William Shakespeare, compelling as a young lover, engaging and sympathetic as a happy, then heartbroken, father. But Buckley steals the show. Her towering work is incomparable in not just the last year, but perhaps the last decade. Her initial joys, and of course her eventual incomparable grief, are performed in such honest, wrecking, debilitating ways that you can’t help but be completely absorbed and deeply affected. It’s a truly all time performance; a masterclass.
In the end, Hamnet sits with you as a film that you think about long after you leave the theatre. One that will rock you to your core, and perhaps one that will make you feel so much you just have to go back and see it again.
