Movie Review: Hamnet

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A wonderful tearjerker. 

So far, I have been a big fan of director/writer Chloé Zhao's work (The Rider (2017), Nomadland (2021), Eternals (2021)) and this movie is just the kind of greatness I expect from her.

This movie follows the story of Willaim Shakespeare meeting his wife, falling in love and having children, including a boy named Hamnet. However, as he follows his dream of being a playwright, he spends less and less time with his family, leaving them alone during hard times. I don't know how true this story is. I have read almost all of Shakespeare's plays (as well as having watched many movie adaptions) but have never done much looking into his actual life. 

This is a pure tearjerker plain and simple. Anyone susceptible to these types of movies and even some who are not usually, will find themselves an emotional wreck with a least a couple moments. Yet this movie is much more effective than many sad movies as of lot. Too many modern sad movies simply seem to take a perverse pleasure in torturing the main character as much as possible, simply piling one misery on top of another until it simply becomes ridiculous. Yet this is luckily not the case here. While the sad scenes are truly heartbreaking, there are also moments of joy, sweetness and romance here. These scenes all make the story feel more real and natural, making the heartbreaking scenes even more effective. There are also some very quiet and reflective scenes here. One of Zhao's best gifts as a filmmaker is how well she can use quiet and silence at the exact right moment to make the movie more emotionally powerful. This can be seen in all her movies, but it is especially effective here. The film is also boosted by very real and moving performances from Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckly as the leads. Both bring a real emotionally honesty to this movie. Buckley's performance in the final scenes will leave you heartbroken. 

If I had one complaint about this film, it is that for some reason, the filmmakers decided not to use William Shakespeare's name until the film was nearing its end. This is pointless because we all know this is a movie about Shakespeare, especially after he writes, " But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." Even someone who has never actually read Shakespeare knows where that quote is from. 

This is such a moving and powerful film.