Film review of the drama, directed by Chloé Zhao, about Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley) and her husband William (Paul Mescal) after the death of their son Hamnet.

Synopsis

In late 16th century Warwickshire, England, a young and restless Latin teacher William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) falls for Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a ‘girl of nature’. The two enjoy an idyllic, passionate marriage of love and respect and start a family, but Will yearns for something more outside of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Agnes encourages him to live and work in London to further his father’s glove-making business and Will falls in with a local theatre company and, in time, develops as a playwright.

Back home, their twins, Judith and Hamnet, fall ill with plague; Hamnet subsequently dies. Agnes experiences deep grief and Will leaves but his internal mourning propels him to write the tragedy Hamlet, which brings the couple back together and deal with their loss.

Review, by @Reelreviewer and @win_hughes

My first trip to the cinema this year was a damp experience…in more ways than one.

Last week saw several days of rain in the Midlands – surprise, surprise for January – but nevertheless I thought to walk the 10-12mins trek from work to the Northampton Filmhouse to see Hamnet, the much-lauded drama about Shakespeare’s family life.

I did not expect the film to be so deeply moving – I went in with wet jeans and a dry face, a situation completely reversed on departing. Hamnet left me wracked with tears; not just a few drops, they streamed down my cheeks.

My emotions were played like a harp from hell thanks to exquisitely pained performances and director Zhao’s (co-writing with the author of the source book, Maggie O’Farrell) balanced handling of the drama.

The film soars – literally, with a recurring motif of a deceased, beloved bird of prey – during the lighter, more romantic moments in the earlier scenes, playful, spinning camerawork, the lushness of nature, and pretty music.

During the darker moments, the audience is tested with intense close-ups of screaming and tears during childbirth and grief. Agnes gives birth to her first child alone in the woods, with relative ease. She is supported when her twins arrive, coinciding with the river Avon bursting its banks after a storm and flooding the birthing room.

Zhao also wisely co-edits the film, which means she has selected the ‘choicest cuts’ and presented them in such a way that every drop of tears and laughter is wrung out of the footage.

The film pairs two of my favourite actors, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, both of whom I’ve admired since first seeing them on TV in, respectively, War & Peace (2016) and Normal People (2020), both excellent BBC-backed pieces.

Both grasp the opportunities this intelligent script offers them and run with it, turning out raw, earthy performances, with Buckley just edging ahead as a devoted mum.

Buckley is, compared to the other female characters, shocking and ‘wild’, but her performance is warm and full of good humour and will. By today’s standards, Agnes would probably be living off-grid somewhere and dabble in eco-activism. Here, Buckley might have nabbed herself an Oscar nod for Best Actress (the nominations will be announced on 22 January 2026).

The whole cast is impeccable, but kudos to Emily Watson as Buckley’s initially cold mother-in-law, critical of her son’s intended wife, but who suddenly softens and reveals that she is distant and brusque with her children because she has borne the heartache of burying three dead children.

The final acting hurrahs hat’s off go to Jacobi Jupe as a delightfully impish and entertaining title character and Faith Delaney as the younger Agnes, dealing with the death of her mother that is the catalyst for later events.

For a movie that deals with death, this is still a life-affirming and positive peace and the themes and emotions are tied up during the ending – a recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre filmed at Elstree Studios – as an emotionally fraught production of Hamlet wraps with Agnes (after heckling the actors for not correctly interpreting her son’s story) seeing the ghost of her son cross the stage and enter the afterlife.

The parallels with Hamlet pepper the film; Shakespeare, like the prince, is an indecisive soul, questioning his existence and what his next actions should be. Both also deal with intolerable bereavement, but where Hamlet feels aggrieved and slighted by the women in his life, Agnes is a supportive catalyst who recognises his wanderlust and suggests and supports his move to London to find himself.

The film is not about the writer, of course, who is almost a peripheral figure, but all about Agnes, who comes across as a remarkably modern woman for the era.

The script and O’Farrell’s book play with the theory that Shakespeare was inspired to write his ‘Danish play’ directly because of his son’s death.

Shakespeare certainly wrote it after his personal tragedy, about four years, but there is no firm evidence that led to Hamlet’s creation. But who needs historical facts when O’Farrell and Zhao have fashioned a great story around tidbits of information.

Don’t just take my word for it, though. My good friend Win Hughes came to the same screening with me, and she has this to say: “Sometimes a much lauded performance can put me off, but in this case that would be most churlish. Jessie Buckley is nothing short of mesmerising. She holds your attention throughout, and as she is on screen for most of the film, that is no mean feat. I found myself drawn into every emotion portrayed, and by the end of the film, I felt completely wrung out.

“A huge shout-out should go to the supporting cast as well. Joe Alwyn and Emily Watson do more than hold their own, and the child actors are totally grounded and believable. It is also one of Paul Mescal’s best performances.

“Overall, this is a film worthy of a visit to the cinema. Enjoy the lush cinematography, beautiful music, and the many undercurrents in this film. It does, after all, treat you as an adult for you to work it out for yourself.”

See the official Universal site for more about Hamnet.

Cast & credits

Director: Chloé Zhao. 2hrs and 6mins/126mins. Hera Pictures/Neal Street Productions/Amblin Entertainment/Book of Shadows/Universal. (12a).

Producers: Nicolas Gonda, Pippa Harris, Liza Marshall, Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg.
Writers: Maggie O’Farrell, Chloé Zhao.
Camera: Łukasz Żal.
Music: Max Richter.
Sets: Fiona Crombie.

Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Freya Hannan-Mills, Louisa Harlan, David Wilmot, Justine Mitchell, Zac Wishart, James Lintern, Faith Delaney.