Hamnet review: Jessie Buckley is superb in this masterly study of loss

While it’s tempting to call Hamnet ‘Shakespeare in Grief’, that’s rather doing Chloé Zhao’s masterly study of loss a disservice. The last time the Bard so significantly appeared in a film was the 1998 Oscar-winner Shakespeare in Love, by John Madden. But while that was a fictionalised story around the creation of Romeo and Juliet, this is an authentic-feeling, intimate family drama, far removed from that glossy romance.

Paul Mescal plays the Bard – only ever once referred to as William Shakespeare in the entire movie. Early on, he meets and falls for Agnes (Jesse Buckley), a free-spirited soul at one with her rural surroundings. Rumour has it she’s the daughter of a forest witch – according to Will’s mother Mary (Emily Watson). He’s also frowned upon, with Agnes’ brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) calling the aspiring playwright a “pasty-faced scholar”, adding: “What use is he?”

Seemingly, though, nothing can hamper their love, and Will and Agnes produce three children – including a delightful boy, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Theirs in a secluded life in the countryside, far from London, where Will eventually win a contract to make gloves for the theatre. In these early scenes Zhao (Nomadland), brilliantly evokes the simple pleasures and hardships of life in this time, her camera perfectly in tune with the heartbeat of nature.

Adapted from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the script with Zhao, it’s a fictional imagining of Shakespeare’s inner life, as the story seeks to look behind the celebrated playwright. This is a young man torn between the love for his family and a career in the theatre that blossoms the more time he spends around creatives in the city. “There are people waiting for me in London,” he cries, words he will soon regret.

Depicting the Stratford-Upon-Avon countryside in earthy tones, where inhabitants are so close to nature they’re caked in dirt, it’s an utterly bewitching portrait of 16th Century living. It’s also a world where illness is commonplace and life is utterly fragile. As events unfold, an imaginable tragedy occurs, leading to an outpouring of grief that threatens to tear the family apart. And yet it’s also the spark for the Bard’s finest hour, as catharsis is found in creativity.

Subtle and persuasive, this is not a film that ever tries to signpost that it’s about Shakespeare. Allusions to his work are almost casually included, like the tender scene where you’ll see his children play acting as the witches from Macbeth. Later scenes where the Bard drills his actors, over and over, in rehearsals, are also surprising by their very rawness, each word pounded out by Mescal’s volatile writer.

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As the title hints, the creation of the Bard’s greatest play Hamlet takes centre stage in the film’s third act – one that takes on greater meaning and resonance giving the preceding bleak events. It’s here where Zhao’s film reaches a devastating crescendo, painfully, personally brought to life by Mescal and particularly Buckley, who gives one of the greatest performances of her esteemed career, as a woman whose very soul has been ripped in two.

Scenes such as a kitchen table confrontation, as Agnes is seen on domestic duties, are electric, as Zhao explores heavyweight issues of life, art and the shattering nature of loss. The finale, all set around a stage performance, lives long in the memory, making this quietly-hewn movie feel utterly wrenching. The play’s the thing, to quote from Hamlet, and Zhao and Farrell find a way to bring that notion to life. Expect this to be a major contender in the 25/26 awards season – it’s a masterpiece.

Hamnet is released in UK cinemas on Friday 9th January 2025.

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