Review: Hamnet

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Official synopsis: After losing their son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) to plague, Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) grapple with grief in 16th-century England. A healer, Agnes must find strength to care for her surviving children while processing her devastating loss.

Hamnet might be one of the most hyped films of the awards season. I feel like I've been hearing near universal praise for it all year. I'm happy to report it's now my new favorite Chloe Zhao film.

Zhao is a very intimate director. Even if I don't completely love a film of hers, I always feel that intimacy. She clearly loves her subjects and this is no exception. Anges makes for a great main character. She's smart, not afraid to be different, and deeply loves her family. She tells us early on the women in her family have visions, and when she sees two children at her death bed, she spends a great deal of time worrying over her surprise set of twins, bringing her total amount of children up to 3. Even though her husband is the one we all know, this is her story. Don't expect much to go into what will eventually become Hamlet, even though we do see part of it play out on stage. This is for everything that comes before.

Buckley is tremendous here, as she always is. Agnes goes through it and she easily navigates some incredibly difficult scenes. But the actor who really surprised me was Jacobi Jupe. Granted, I could be projecting because I'm the mother of a boy so I always feel more emotional over stories that center around mothers and sons, but I thought he was incredible here. He made me bawl during the second act (something that just kept happening until the very end of the film) Since we're in the trenches of awards season, it reminded me again of how weird the academy gets with kid performances sometimes. His is one that really should be getting more attention. What a sweet lad he is in this. (And how fun that his older brother Noah Jupe plays Hamlet on stage)

I got a bit worried in the first few minutes of this film, because I wondered if it would take an aloof approach, but I shouldn't have doubted Chloe. This film may be about grief, but it's also bursting with love. 

Grade: A

Comments

  1. SJHoneywellDecember 12, 2025 at 2:57 PM

    I'm looking forward to this one. I expect a ton of Oscar noms for it.

    ReplyDelete

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