Hamnet

Rated PG-13 • Theaters

Academy Award–winning director Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s book of the same name, poignantly dramatizes the life of William Shakespeare.

The film begins with a young Will (Paul Mescal) meeting and falling in love with his future wife, here called Agnes (Jessie Buckley). But life isn’t a fairy tale for the young lovers. Despite familial objections, Will and Agnes marry, and daughter Susanna soon follows. Small-town life stifles Will’s genius, so Agnes sends him to London. He makes visits back home, and soon twins Judith and Hamnet are born. Having a husband and father who’s frequently absent puts a strain on the family, but that strain reaches the breaking point when Hamnet dies of plague while Will is away.

This movie is an emotionally wrought exploration of grief, and Zhao crafts powerful scenes using long takes. Buckley’s performance channels a visceral pain when Agnes loses her child, and we feel the chill wrapping her heart as she redirects feelings of injustice toward her husband. Will takes his anguish and channels it into the script of Hamlet, and Mescal imbues his recitation of those lines with pathos.

Despite the names “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” being interchangeable in 16th-century England, the idea that Shakespeare’s dead son inspired his play about a Danish prince seems questionable. The film also contains some anachronisms of attitude and deed; for example, we see Will swimming a front crawl hundreds of years before the stroke made its way to England. Even so, Hamnet offers a moving interpretation of the Shakespearean mythos that considers both how grief shapes creativity and how creativity can help us heal from loss.

Hamnet is rated PG-13 for thematic content and some sexuality, containing a scene of intimacy that’s awkward to watch despite the actors staying mostly dressed.