After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England. A healer, Agnes must find strength to care for her surviving children while processing her devastating loss.

‘Hamnet’ is the latest film from Chloé Zhao, a historical drama centred on William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, and how she and William cope with the tragic loss of their young son, Hamnet. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, the film is broadly split into two parts, with the first focusing on the Shakespeares’ family life as William and Agnes meet, marry and have children while his career begins to take shape, before the second picks up after tragedy strikes. Starring Jessie Buckley, in a performance that has already swept many of the major awards, alongside Paul Mescal, I found it to be a deeply moving piece of work.

The film’s two-part structure is clearly felt, and the first section is undoubtedly less engrossing than what follows. Much of the drama here comes from the growing tension between William and Agnes as he moves to London to pursue his career as a playwright, leaving her to raise their children in Stratford-upon-Avon. That material is well handled by Zhao’s assured direction and strong performances (I also liked Emily Watson as William’s mother), but it’s once tragedy hits that ‘Hamnet’ reaches another level entirely. The second act becomes a study of grief and the different ways people process loss, seen largely through Jessie Buckley’s extraordinarily raw performance, and from that point on I was completely gripped.

As Agnes grieves at home, William is largely absent from the film, away in London preparing his next play (it’s not hard to work out which one), setting the stage for a final act that is absolutely masterful and, frankly, devastating. It hinges on a recreation of a performance of Hamlet, with Agnes in the audience, and draws its power from her realisation that William has processed his grief differently, through his art. In those moments, they have never felt more connected. Aided by Max Richter’s beautiful score, and the return of one of his most stirring compositions, it’s as affecting and heartbreaking a sequence as I’ve seen in some time.

If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s that the script can occasionally be a little on the nose (“to be or not to be” and all that), but these moments are easy to overlook when so much else works so well. Overall, ‘Hamnet’ is a powerful, emotionally rich film, and one that left a lasting impression on me.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Chloé Zhao

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, David Wilmot, Olivia Lynes and Noah Jupe

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt14905854/