52 Films by Women Vol 9. 45. Hamnet (Director: Chloé Zhao)
Only one of three women who have won an Academy Award as Best Director -
the others are Kathryn Bigalow and Jane Campion – Chloé Zhao makes films about
marginalised individuals. Hamnet, her second
film shot in England after 2021’s Eternals, which
showed a bunch of jacked superheroes in action in London’s Camden Town,
is another such movie. Zhao won her Oscar in 2021 for Nomadland, a film about
America’s houseless. Here, her subject is Agnes Hathaway, betrothed through
woodland ceremony to reluctant tutor, William Shakespeare, and left at home to
raise his children. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, Zhao’s film focuses
on key events over an eighteen-year-period between 1582 and 1600, although
there are no captions to indicate the passing of time. The only caption
consists of an academic quotation describing the names ‘Hamnet’ and ‘Hamlet’ as
interchangeable. The film presents Shakespeare’s most famous play, first
performed in the last years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, as a response to family
tragedy.
Zhao’s film is entirely told from the point of view of Agnes, who is
played by Jessie Buckley, the Killarney born actress who has worked with a significant
number of female directors - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Thea Sharrock, Sarah Polley and
Philippa Lowthorpe. Although cast opposite Paul Mescal, who was catapulted to
fame through the television series, Normal People, Buckley
dominates the film with a performance that is less transformative than
transcendent.
The Agnes of the film is described as ‘the daughter of a witch’ – reason
enough to be marginalised – on account of her knowledge of natural remedies. When
she is introduced, she is residing in her brother Bartholemew’s household. Actually,
it is quite difficult to determine the living arrangement, but Agnes is in
service (in some capacity) when she catches the eye of Will (Mescal), who would
rather not be working off his father’s debt by teaching Latin to young boys.
Will tries to impress Agnes by bringing her a new falconer’s glove – his father
makes them. ‘I’ve already got one,’ Agnes replies plaintively. Will responds by
tossing it on the ground. Agnes is established at home in nature. We first see
her at the foot of a tree, one branch of which resembles a vein. Zhao
photographs trees as lovingly as Ildiko Enyedi in her film, Silent
Friend. It isn’t long before Agnes and Will engage in what the British Board of
Film Classification describes as ‘moderate sex’, filmed from above head height,
as if representing the action from the view of the Dress Circle of a theatre. Cinematographer
Łukasz Żal shoots a number of scenes from this angle with a static camera and
without cuts. The effect to intensify the
(comparatively few) close ups.
Pictured: Agnes (Jessie Buckley, centre) in a scene from the drama, 'Hamnet', adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel by O'Farrell and the film's director, Chloé Zhao. Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures.
‘She’s been banished from her home,’ Mary Shakespeare (Emily Watson)
tells her son. ‘I chose to leave,’ Agnes replies. Is it any wonder that Will is
lost for words? The idiom is the one contentious aspect of the movie. People
don’t remotely sound like characters in a Shakespeare play. You expect to hear
‘tis’ at least once, or words ending in -ly (such as ‘verily’). There is
comparatively little dialogue. In one vivid scene, Agnes goes into labour a
second time. ‘I must go to the forest,’ she pleads. ‘You can’t, ‘Mary tells
her, ‘The river has flooded.’ Zhao cuts to an exterior shot that suggests that
going out is indeed a very bad idea. Indeed, water appears underneath the door
to Mary’s house. It is as expressionistic a depiction of amniotic fluid as you
could ever hope to see. Mary successfully restrains Agnes enough for her to give
birth, albeit with the umbilical cord conspicuously absent. But then there is a
second child. It arrives grey-skinned and unresponsive. Agnes demands that it
be given to her. She cradles it and the child burbles appreciatively. However,
Agnes has cursed herself. She has imagined being looked after by two children.
With her older daughter, Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), now she has three. Strangely,
in the latter part of the film, Agnes does not discuss this curse or a sense of
guilt.
Although she has no concept of Will’s career, Agnes is supportive. ‘He
must go to London,’ she explains, hoping that Shakespeare’s father will provide
funds. On top of being a reluctant tutor, Will is a hopeless stitcher of
leather goods, the family business.
Zhao ensures that we don’t get too attached to Will and that we are
charmed by his three children, who perform as the three witches who meet
Macbeth upon the heath. In his absence, his youngest daughter Judith (Olivia
Lynes) becomes ill. Her twin brother Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) lies down next to
her, but then her poorly condition is transferred to her.
Much of the pre-publicity of the film – and the novel – focuses on what
happens next. In the aftermath, Will returns to London. Agnes and the family
are left to grieve alone.
Pictured: Noah Jupe as an actor playing Hamlet in a scene from 'Hamnet', adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel by O'Farrell and the film's director, Chloé Zhao. Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures.
The final part of the film covers the rehearsals of the Globe Theatre
production of Hamlet. Will berates the lead actor (Noah Jupe) for his delivery
of the line, ‘I am indifferent honest’. ‘You’re just mouthing the lines,’ he
complains. Learning the title of the play, Agnes rushes to see it. By the end
of the performance, the theatre audience shares her reaction.
In general, very little happens. Excerpts from ‘Hamlet’ take up the last
twenty minutes of the film with a white-faced Will taking the role of Hamlet’s
late father. We read the play as both an expression of Shakespeare’s grief and
a means to reconnect with Agnes, who is appalled by the idea of moving to a
larger house. (‘To leave the place where he died?’) At film festival screenings
(Toronto, London), there were reports of audiences leaving the cinema in floods
of tears. Yet for all of the emotional content, the film is curiously unmoving.
The overwhelming feeling was that the film is rather simplistic, a collection
of loose ends – for instance, what happened to Shakespeare’s father? ‘Hamlet’
isn’t Shakespeare’s first tragedy. You wonder why he chose to memorialise his
son in a drama about betrayal and revenge. Also, if Richard Burbage did play
Hamlet in that production (around 1600), why is he so young? Noah Jupe, who
plays Hamlet, is Jacobi Jupe’s older brother.
One element that detracts from the film is the score. Zhao uses a
pre-existing piece of music by Max Richter, ‘On The Nature of Daylight’. You
can’t immerse yourself in an emotional scene if you suddenly think, ‘where have
I heard this piece of music before?’ For me, it is a colossal misstep.
Buckley is required to howl in several scenes, twice when Agnes gives birth
and again expressing her grief. She gives a physical performance rather than a
spoken one. On the occasion that she utters something Shakespearean, coining
the phrase, ‘the undiscovered country’, a reference to death, you wince. You
can’t imagine that Shakespeare appropriated his poetic dialogue from family
members. At least Zhao doesn’t have Buckley say, ‘this spot, I can’t wash it
out’ or ‘last winter, I was discontented’ or complain that the local merchant
appeared to demand a pound of flesh for a new dining table.
Pictured: 'There's something missing from this backdrop'. Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in 'Hamnet', adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel by O'Farrell and the film's director, Chloé Zhao. Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures.
While the dialogue may be suspect, the film is strong on production
design. There is no asphalt to be seen. The tilted camera angles make you aware
of the ground on which the characters stand. The theatre set features a
painting of a deep forest. Added to it is a black arch, representing both the
hollow where Agnes found solace and the void in the family’s life.
In a scene in Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare’s family live, Will
teaches his son swordplay, advising him on how to be hit by a sword without it
actually touching him. This scene is contrasted with the swordplay during the
finale of ‘Hamlet’, the Prince of Denmark being told that the tip of his
opponent’s sword is tainted with poison that will kill him. The two scenes are
oddly disconnected. Hamnet fakes death but lives. Hamlet thinks he lives but
has been dealt a fatal blow. Is the first scene necessary? The film demands a
lot from its viewers – familiarity with Shakespeare and ‘Hamlet’ for a start.
It doesn’t make the best use of the audience’s knowledge.
Reviewed at Curzon Westgate, Canterbury, Screen Two, Tuesday 13 January 2026, 14:20 screening
Comments
Post a Comment