Movies depicting Shakespeare’s life, as opposed to his works, often seem shaky. 1998’s Shakespeare in Love was one of the more successful, mostly because it didn’t take itself too seriously; it was a romantic-comedy trifle. Kenneth Branagh and Ben Elton tried for a more realistic tone with All Is True in 2018, but it didn’t quite come together, despite some marvelous scenes. Now comes Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel (they co-wrote the script). Spoilers ahead!
The title character is one of Shakespeare’s three (known) children, and his only son. Hamnet Shakespeare passed on at the age of 11, probably from the plague, in 1596, shortly before his father’s Hamlet is thought to have been composed.
It’s hard to resist the assumption that this personal tragedy influenced Shakespeare’s choice of a stage hero with a similar name, in a drama exploring mortality and loss. The parallels may, of course, have been coincidental. The boy may have been named after a friend of Shakespeare’s named Hamnet Sadler, and Prince Hamlet was a figure in Danish legend (also the basis for the 2022 film, The Northman); Shakespeare’s play adapted earlier versions of the story.
But there’s also nothing implausible about the idea that the event might indeed have had an impact. The story of Hamnet is focused, at any rate, more on the experience of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne (or “Agnes”) Hathaway Shakespeare, than on that of her husband. Played by Jessie Buckley, she’s depicted here as a witchy woman, keeping to the woods and practicing falconry and herbal medicine to stay connected to her own departed mother.
Will (Paul Mescal) is captivated by her passionate, wild-spirited manner, and she warms up to him fast when he shows his ability to tell a story. After a slightly scandalous courtship, they wed, move into the house of Will’s violent, disappointed father (David Wilmot), and start having kids: first Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), then twins Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes).
Agnes takes a mystical view toward her children; believing she’s fated to have only two and afraid that Hamnet’s twin sister Judith is the one in peril. She struggles through their illnesses without any help from her husband, who is usually away taking the London theater scene by storm. In intense, sparely written scenes set in Stratford-upon-Avon, Zhao draws us into the agonized, reproachful grief of their family life. In the final stretch, she takes us to London and the Globe Theatre for Will’s point of view.
Mescal is superb as the loving but neurotic, traumatized Will, and the rest of the cast, especially the kids, do creditable work as well. But the movie really belongs to the volcanic Jessie Buckley, erupting with groans and wails of pain and love. She’s fearless and amazing.
So Hamnet is beautifully acted, beautifully produced and, within the realm of what Zhao is trying for – the scenes at the Globe are just sketched in for the sake of the reaction to them – beautifully directed. But let’s face it, this is a movie about the death of a kid. It’s not just something that happens in the course of the story, it’s what the movie is about. However worthy a subject, it’s tough to take.
Shakespeare’s mother (the excellent, plainspoken Emily Watson) speaks the movie’s terrible theme out loud: “We must never take for granted that our children’s hearts beat.” The part she doesn’t have to say is that there is nothing we can do about this dreadful uncertainty. Hamnet speaks to a truth every parent knows: that the best-case scenario is that you live in fear for your children until the day you die. The movie dramatizes it potently, and I’m glad I saw it, but I doubt I’ll ever want to see it again.
