Review: Hamnet

Buckley and Mescal star in the Oscar-nominated Hamnet

The heavy rain today was a good reason to head to the theatre to watch Hamnet, the film by Chloe Zhao that has been nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best actress.

I have to admit I did not see Nomadland so I was not sure what I was expecting with Hamnet.

It is a devastating, intense processing of grief, and how people deal with it differently.

Buckley plays Agnes, Shakespeare's wife

Zhao wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, who wrote the novel, fictionalising what William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) might have gone through when their son Hamnet dies at the age of 11.

The scene opens with two tall trees with their roots entwined, as Agnes lies curled up near their roots; she is a free-spirited, strong-headed woman, the daughter of a forest witch, who knows herbal medicinal treatments, and when holding someone's hand, can see into their futures.

Shakespeare is a Latin tutor, frustrated as he is working to pay off his father's debts. He wants to write plays, but is stuck in a small village. He meets Agnes and to help the story move along quickly, they get married and have children, an older daughter Susanna and twins, Hamnet and Judith.

But the bubonic plague spreads and Hamnet dies, and this scene is absolutely tragic, watching Agnes' reaction. In an podcast interview with the New York Times, Buckley says there was no particular direction in the script about how the scene would play out; they just let the camera roll, and viewers are in agony watching Agnes in raw emotional pain.

Watson delivers important lines in the film

She and Shakespeare deal with the immense grief differently, causing the pair to have a rift between them, and the audience wonders how or if that will ever be reconciled. 

Meanwhile, Shakespeare's mother (Emily Watson) says the most poignant lines in the film, as she too has experienced the loss of a child.

"What is given may be taken away, at anytime," she says. "The trick is never to let down your guard. Never think you are safe. Never take for granted that your children's hearts beat, that they sup milk, that they draw breath, that they walk and speak and smile and argue and play. Never for a moment forget they may be gone, snatched from you in the blink of any eye, borne away from you like thistledown."

It is words of advice that transcend time.

Hamnet is a slow-moving film, giving a lot of time for the actors and the scene to breathe before moving on. The bubonic plague is not a big storyline in the plot, but it's not really hovering much in the background either. 

Zhao (middle) with the cast of Hamnet

There is a belief that Shakespeare spent more time in London than Stratford-Upon-Avon because he did not like his wife, but author O'Farrell says there is no evidence of him detesting her. So she reframed the their relationship as a loving one, and focusing more on Agnes, rather than the Bard.

Perhaps that explains why Buckley has the best actress nomination, but Mescal also deserves a nod for his portrayal of a frustrated artist who channeled his anger and grief into one of his best plays, Hamlet.

Interesting to note that Buckley says while shooting the film she was so keen on having a child that after they finished filming, she got pregnant a month afterwards.

She first saw the film eight months pregnant and says the experience of being Agnes has profoundly affected her as a mother.

Hamnet

Directed by Chloe Zhao

126 minutes