Movie Review: ‘Hamnet’

NEW YORK (OSV News) – “Hamnet” (Focus) is a lyrical but emotionally wrenching drama, a film that is both too intense and too complicated for kids. Those of their elders equipped to take on this challenging riff on real-life events, however, will also be able to bring their religious formation to bear on the movie’s more problematic elements.

Paul Mescal plays the paragon of poets and playwrights, William Shakespeare. While still a tutor bored by the latin recitations of his students, Will falls at first sight for misfit and loner Agnes (Jessie Buckley).

A prenuptial encounter within the context of an informal understanding between the two leads to the birth of the couple’s elder daughter, Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). Twins Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) follow after they tie the knot in the face of opposition from both of their families.

Though the Shakespeares are a loving clan, Will’s ambition can’t be satisfied in Stratford. So, with Agnes’ consent, he departs for London to embark on his career. He’s there when Judith falls ill with the plague. Yet, by the time he returns at a gallop, it’s Hamnet who is lying dead of the disease.

Touchingly, Hamnet is shown to offer himself to death as a sacrificial substitute for his much-loved sibling. But his demise is, of course, no less shattering for his parents as a result.

To Agnes’ initial bewilderment and irritation, Will infuses his intense grief into the writing of a play. Yet, arriving in the metropolis in company with her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) in time to catch the debut of her husband’s masterpiece, “Hamlet,” Agnes is transformed by witnessing the performance.

Director Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell, from whose 2020 novel the film is adapted, has crafted a deeply moving affirmation of the power of creativity and of human sympathy. Viewers committed to Christian values will nonetheless be unsettled by the script’s depiction of Agnes who, more than Will, is the story’s real protagonist.

Agnes practices herbal medicine. But in preparing her remedies she recites incantations that suggest she’s engaged in white magic. After losing Hamnet, moreover, Agnes denies the idea that her son has gone to heaven.

Agnes also identifies herself as a dissenter from the faith, at least in its state-sponsored Anglican form. She goes to church yet refuses to join in the prayers.

Together with her deep connection to nature — she enjoys falconry and even prefers giving birth outdoors rather than at home — these aspects of Agnes’ viewpoint and behavior are implicitly presented as some form of feminist rebellion against an oppressively patriarchal society. Moviegoers are clearly meant to sympathize with Agnes’ outlook.

Well-catechized grown-ups should have no difficulty in assessing such material. Yet, along with the picture’s unsparing presentation of tragic circumstances as well as the sequence in which Susanna’s conception is portrayed, these ingredients make “Hamnet” unsuitable fare for youngsters.

The film contains occult practices and semi-graphic premarital sexual activity with partial nudity. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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