'Hamnet' A Review

Hamnet is a period drama, an adaptation of the 2020 novel, about the courtship and marriage of Agnes(Jessie Buckley) and Shakespeare(Paul Mescal) and how the two deal with the untimely death of their 11 year old son, the titular Hamnet(Jacobi Jupe).

Buckley gives an incredible, almost elemental performance. Raw and open and unadorned. Mescal struggles a bit to get to her level, he's still good and they have good chemistry, but she clearly outshines him which all-in-all is mostly appropriate given it is really Agnes's story. The supporting characters are well cast and effective although Emily Watson is somewhat underused and the child actors are surprisingly natural and give full-bodied performances particularly Olivia Lynes as Judith. The issue isn't with the actors or what they do and Buckely will, justly, get some awards attention this year.

There are two big issues with the film. The first is the camera work. It deploys an absolutely relentless shaky hand-held close-up focused approach that feels claustrophobic and bludgeoning displaying a distrust of the actors, Buckley in particular, and a coldly mercenary view as to eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience.

Two, on that same track, the emotional beats are profoundly unsubtle and the script exploits the child-death at the center of the story enormously to the point where the clear manipulation of the audience is recognizable and offensive ie the fifteen minute long scene of 11-year-old Jupe wailing and thrashing as he dies along with Buckley's primordial screams all shot in 6 inch close ups is all just too much. We get it. The situation and the performances are effective, the audience does not need to be dragged along by the ear and beaten over the head with the idea that a child's death is tragic. The film clearly relishes this moment and that's simply wrong.

This juxtaposed with the final scene of the film during a staging of Hamlet where both Agnes and Shakespeare finally gain understanding and catharsis is nothing short of transcendent. The inconsistency is frustrating. The film looks beautiful, the cast is great, the story is compelling, but it gets in its own way.

A career best from Buckley mostly weathers co-writer/director Chloé Zhao's periodic lack of confidence in her material and audience.

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.