Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s superior novel of the same name, Hamnet is the latest film from director (and co-writer with O’Farrell) Chloé Zhao. The story speculates how the tragic death of William Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son, Hamnet, gave life to the writer’s most famous play, Hamlet. A fine idea, but the film is nothing more than an incessant barrage of guttural screams, constant weeping, and a monotonous pounding of its themes.

Chloé Zhao’s fifth feature film (for all its heavy emotional histrionics) is quite dull. Hamnet holds its focus on unimaginable grief, but fails to give insight into the characters. It is understood how this film will show the tragedy that births Hamlet, but there is no deep exploration into Shakespeare’s process of bridging the gap between tragedy and artistic closure.

Hamnet follows William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Anne/Agnes (Jessie Buckley) through the beginnings of their cinematically uninteresting romance, to their marriage and boring hardships, and through the the death of their young son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). The opening epigraph informs us that, in Elizabethan England, the names “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” were interchangeable.

Mescal’s Will isn’t referred to as the Shakespeare we know, but the film apparently thinks the audience is uninformed. Throughout the film, the screenplay peppers a few unnecessary (and eye-rolling) references to the writer’s work. Moments like these show the filmmakers’ distrust of its audience. Not that there is a mystery to be solved, but let viewers work it out themselves.

One of the most adventurous actors working today, Jessie Buckley can do no wrong. Playing that old chestnut of a free-spirit (she has a hawk!) during a time when women were expected to know “their place”, Buckley is as good as ever, completely inhabiting every emotion of her character. The actress perfectly matches Anne/Agnes’s rebellious spirit and erotic allure, giving a stronger performance than was written. The screenplay eventually reduces the character to a seemingly endless series of guttural screams that becomes tiresome almost immediately, but Buckley remains unscathed.

Paul Mescal is a damn good actor who is carving out an interesting career. With the exception of last year’s Gladiator II, Mescal mostly stays within the realm of independent cinema, choosing projects that challenge both him and the audience. With Hamnet, the actor finds himself completely lost. One of Mescal’s strengths is tapping into his characters’ emotional cores through tonal shifts, glances, and precise body movements. As Will, Mescal moseys around the entire film, moping his way from scene to scene. While it is obvious there is a lot going on with the character, the portrayal becomes nothing more than watching Paul Mescal wandering aimlessly through his performance.

As a filmmaker, Chloé Zhao has certainly earned respect. The director’s first two films (Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider) were poetically intimate character studies that found a beauty in their silences. 2020’s Nomadland won Zhao the Oscar for Best Director. After bending the knee to Marvel for a big paycheck (to direct the unbearably dull Eternals), this is the director’s return to actual filmmaking. Unfortunately, her free-form style fails to tap into the nuances of the characters. Zhao’s quiet pacing and hand-held camera keep audiences at an emotional distance. This time, there is no poetry found in the silences, and the film floats by in the hope of finding something soulful.

That moment does arrive in the final act, when we witness the first performance of Hamlet and Anne/Agnes’s reaction to it. As Will puts on the inaugural performance, the whole village is watching. As it begins, Buckley’s character works her way to the front. As the play continues, the waves of sadness, understanding, and catharsis are impossible to ignore. Despite all of the drudgery that came before, this finale works, and works very well. If only the entire film could have found such a profoundly moving center.

There is a lot of scuttlebutt regarding how this film could be a major player come Oscar season. If nominations are to come, it is because the film will have been preordained. Hamnet is not the emotional cry-fest the studio would have us believe. The film’s treatise on grief is deeper than its execution, which is a slow and redundant exercise in simplicity.

If one is in the 7th grade and just getting into the works of William Shakespeare, this might seem potent. For the rest of us, Hamnet is too facile and shallow a film to leave a mark. 

To quote ol’ William himself, “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”


Hamnet

Written by Maggie O’Farrell & Chloé Zhao

Directed by Chloé Zhao

Starring Jesse Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Justine Mitchell, David Wilmot, Louisa Harland, Freya Hannan-Mills, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Noah Jupe

PG-13, 125 Minutes, Focus Features