Madness in great performances must not let unwatched go.
Hamnet was the only son of William Shakespeare and a fraternal twin to his sister Judith. His cause of death is unknown, but people did suggest it may have something to do with famine or a plague that has attacked the Warwickshire countryside. And ever since that tragedy, William has written the tragedy “Hamlet.” And both Hamnet and Hamlet were considered interchangeable names at the time, and the connection between the young boy and the play is widely speculated.
Before we get to those tragedies, we see young William (Paul Mescal) falling in love with Agnes (Jessie Buckley), who was older than him and accused of being the daughter of a local witch. She has a vast knowledge of plants and herbs, so it might be conceivable, but William could care less about what the public says about her. In real life, her name was Anne Hathaway, but according to her father’s will, her name was listed as “Agnes.”
“Hamnet,” Chloe Zhao’s most accomplished film since “Nomadland,” is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s book, which itself is a fictionalized account of Hamnet and focusing on his parents’ grief. Zhao and O’Farrell co-wrote the screenplay, as it also speaks through Agnes’ perspective and how she meets William, starts a family, and goes through whatever cynicism life throws at her.
We see how both their families would disapprove of their love at first, but try to come around. After all, William’s mother Mary (Emily Watson) helps her through her birthing process of her twins, and Agnes’ brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) is somebody she can talk to. It would regard her husband’s anger and stress, and maybe working in London can help take his mind off his father John (David Wilmot). And maybe it could also help with his poetic career.
And if Agnes was the daughter of a witch, then maybe Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe’s brother) and Judith (“Britain’s Got Talent” finalist Olivia Lynes) might know something about connection within life and death. I don’t really want to say how for the sake of spoiler alerts, but you know how twins can be-fraternal or identical. And you also know how parents react to such turmoil like this, and the acting here is real.
Photographed by Lukasz Zal (“The Zone of Interest”) and edited by Zhao and Alfonso Gonclaves (“Carol,” “I’m Still Here”), we see such radiant shots of the woods and a cave that we never go inside, but we still wonder what is there. Another memorable shot is William struggling to write his next poem, but gets upset and worries he might be a violent person. Agnes assures him he is a good man, and would never be such a bad person. And when we get to the “Hamlet” play with Noah Jupe playing the title character, it’s all drawn and presented with humanity. And I love how it closes to the tune of “On the Nature of Daylight” composed by Max Ritcher, who also provides the movie’s score.
Maybe there should be more to the “Hamlet” development, but we do get some honest reactions from Agnes at the stage production. “Hamnet” is sad, angry, and powerfully acted by the likes of Buckley, Mescal, and both Jupes. Like the book, it likes to show us a different angle of Shakespeare’s family, especially his wife and only son, and Zhao knows how to represent characters through their pathos.
Also produced by Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, “Hamnet” is a great looking and emotionally complex movie that represents a different angle of Shakespeare’s wife and son, and draws us into their worlds. It’s a tragedy that inspires another tragedy, and in both this fictionalized account and in real life, it’s never exploited.
