Hamnet (Chloe Zhao, 2025, USA/UK)

After a side trek into the Marvel universe with Eternals, Hamnet represents a return to form for director Chloe Zhao, who got her start with more sensitive dramas like Nomadland. Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell and co-written by her, the film mixes historical fact with historical speculation to tell the story of William Shakespeare’s personal life. Shakespeare himself, played by Paul Mescal, is somewhat of a secondary character in this story, with the main acting heft going to Jessie Buckley as his wife, Anne Hathaway. The film is largely a domestic drama that surrounds Anne and William’s tempestuous relationship, from their first courtship to the tragedy that befalls their family.

Spoiler alert: there has been much speculation about the death of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, and the potential relationship to his play Hamlet. Zhao’s film assumes a direct connection between these two events, with the grief of Hamnet’s death contributing directly to the grief and existential anguish at the heart of Hamlet. There is a riveting final scene in which Agnes sees Hamlet for the first time and has a powerful response. While Hamnet is quintessential period Oscar bait, it is nevertheless pleasing to watch - no doubt due in large part to the cinematography by Łukasz Żal.

Max Richter provides the score, and it is somewhat curious that he reuses his famous piece “On the Nature of Daylight” in the film’s finale. The immediately recognizable piece takes one out of the events of the film, and it seems odd that an original piece of music couldn’t have been made for this scene. Hamnet does not have a lot of levity, and the film does go where we think it is going to go the entire time. This is one of the central challenges of pieces with historical events involved.

6/10