Hamnet (2025)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Chloe Zhao's 'Hamnet,' is a beautiful character study about dealing with grief, and the role that stories can play in that.
  
  That's impactful stuff when it gets to it, but the first third of the film is simply spent watching Agnes (Jesse Buckley) and William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) meeting and starting their life and family together. It's a pretty simple affair to start with, but it's frankly hard to take your eyes off the screen because the writing and performances are so unusually full of the silliness, joy and banality of real love and family life.
  
  Things all change however when their son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) dies at the hands of the plague. Once again this feels earnest, but in a completely heart-breaking way, as the pair retreat away from each other - Shakespeare towards pragmatism and resignation through his work, and Agnes to sorrow and desperation at her husband's lack of vulnerability.
  
  In the end though, the play he's working on powerfully serves as the bridge between them, as Hamlet plays through the grief for both of them. That not only makes for a moving character arc, but also a testament to the power of stories to help us deal with the most difficult things, and that was certainly enough to bring this particular reviewer to tears.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The family scenes - both in their happy and darker years - can get a little repetitive at times.
  
  VERDICT: 'Hamnet,' is a beautifully earnest film about grief that concludes with a powerful message about the power of stories.

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