*Premise spoilers*
Completing all the films on my list, just under the wire, woohoo! Best Picture nominee #10 is a heartwrenching family drama centered around one of the most renowned playwrights in history, but the story it tells is very human and grounded, even within its literary and visual poetry.
Agnes is already pregnant with Will Shakespeare’s first child at the time of their marriage. The healer and the playwright—both have their own sort of magic to weave, but Will’s takes him far away from his growing young family in Stratford, off to the playhouses of London. When tragedy strikes, Agnes wrestles to carry on alone for the sake of her children, while Will pours his grief into his writing.
Hamnet received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It’s based on a novel, which I hadn’t realized at the start.
When you’re talking movies about Shakespeare, you’re always going to be dealing more with historical fiction than biopic, just by virtue of the fact that so little is definitively known about his life. And since this movie centers even more on Agnes/Anne than on him, that goes double. As such, it’s not really helpful to wonder about the movie’s accuracy. Better to focus instead on the story it’s creating, the emotions it’s exploring. On that level, it’s quite masterful.
One thing I love is when period pieces emphasize that ultimately, throughout history, people have always been people. That quality is used to strong effect here. We see it in Will’s shy wooing of Agnes, fumbling and tongue-tied until he tells her a story. We see it when Agnes offers her children a folktale to comfort them through the loss of a beloved animal companion, when Will plays with the kids, when Agnes struggles to cope after Will leaves her to pick herself up after an immense sorrow. The emotions are human, so raw, so immediate. Which is fitting—because after all, so is Shakespeare.
I love the ways Hamlet is woven in here as an expression of Will’s pain. All the parallels are beautifully done, and the scenes the movie highlights are well chosen for their emotional impact. This passage is handled in such a way that it’s cathartic, not just for Will, but for Agnes as well. The whole final sequence is gorgeous—I was absolutely crying through most of it.
No shade to Paul Mescal, who I really liked in Aftersun a few years ago and who gives a lovely performance as Will, but this is Jessie Buckley’s movie. As Agnes, she’s grounded and otherworldly at the same time. A healer, a mother, a fierce fighter. She’s married to a genius who’s going to change the world, but it’s hard to think about that when she really needs him home. Stellar work! The actors playing the Shakespeares’ three children also turn in some very affecting work—Bodhi Rae Breathnach as Susanna, Olivia Lynes as Judith, and of course, Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements (including the death of a child,) disturbing images, sexual content, violence (including an abusive parent,) and drinking.
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