Hamnet (2026)

The buzz around Chloe Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 historical fiction novel has been quite something. Everyone who saw early screenings of it seems to be tipping it for awards success- most notably in the acting categories, thanks to the excellent performances of Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It also appears that you'll be unable to come out of this film without tears streaming down your face. So, does it live up to the hype? Mescal plays Will (Shakespeare) and Buckley his wife Agnes, who lose their eleven year old son Hamnet after he seemingly contracts the illness of his twin sister Judith- and through wish alone, takes the illness from her and passes away, while she returns to full health. Broadly speaking, the film's tragedy is the spark which leads to Shakespeare coining Hamlet, and technically speaking, this is true to life. The first half of Hamnet deals with Will and Agnes getting together, much to the chagrin of Will's parents; Agnes is considered the daughter of a witch with her hawk-wielding abilities in the forest and her strange connection with the woods itself. It's in these suggestive scenes in the forest that Hamnet is at its strongest, with a magical realism brimming at the scenes, as well as the odd hint at out and out horror. In one short sequence where Will is in London where he ends up working, he glimpses a puppet show in the dark back alleys of the city, filled with brooding terror while the audience know what's unfurling back at his home in Stratford. Indeed the cinematography is a joy, with Łukasz Żal's work majestically transporting you both to rural Stratford and Elizabethan London. Mescal and Buckley are terrific, deserving of the critical adulation, Buckley especially. But although only appearing briefly in comparison, it's Emily Watson as Will's mother who really drew my attention- perhaps because because she's a peripheral character. We've always known her brilliance, but here Watson is astonishing; in the scene in which Agnes gives birth to her twins, the focus is intended to be on Agnes- and yet we can't look away from Watson as she conveys an incredible array of emotions on her face. It's a powerhouse of a tiny supporting role. After Hamnet's passing, Will begins to spend more time in London working, and Agnes admonishes him for it when he returns home, feeling that she's abandoned him and Hamnet in leaving her to grieve alone while running a household. As the audience we know exactly what he's doing in London but she doesn't fully grasp the magnitude of his mourning, meaning the final quarter of the film in which she travels to London to experience the production of Hamlet for herself is the crux of the couples grief coming together as one. We can see Agnes's grief manifesting, but Will's is more nuanced; exposing itself in one rehearsal scene for Hamlet in which an actor cannot get the expressiveness of his line that Will wants. What Zhao has managed to do with Hamlet is channel the audience emotion through art. There's not a whole lot going on because everything is beyond surface level expressionism, and the cinematography feeds the emotion. Personally, I have to say I wasn't bowled over in the same way as many have been. When the end arrives, you're instructed how to feel by Agnes, Will and the score, which up until the ending has been suggestive rather than deliberately evocative. But in the end, Hamnet's death only occurs around halfway through the film, meaning Hamnet doesn't give you enough time to take everything in and justify its demands on the audience by the film's ending. I'm well aware this has not been the case for the majority, but I was left a little cold by the finale. It also feels like an odd decision to bestow a section of the stage performance of Hamlet upon the audience; although we're supposed to be focusing on Will and Agnes especially in this final segment, it arrives all too quickly and then simply ends. Will and Agnes might have got their closure, but I didn't, perhaps because my eyes were open rather than blinded by tears. These criticisms perhaps feel extra harsh because Hamnet is frequently a beautiful piece of film making, and Zhao is an extraordinary film maker. I would not begrudge Buckley an Oscar at all, nor Mescal- although he should have won for Aftersun (2022), so perhaps the Academy will right this wrong. And as for Watson, while everyone is (understandably) fawning over the central pairing, she quietly walks off having stolen several scenes from this gorgeous, yet frustrating film. 7.3/10