HAMNET (12A)
William Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway has only a supporting role in the history books.
But she is the dominant figure in Hamnet, Chloe Zhao’s deeply soulful, altogether intoxicating tearjerker which, as one of the centrepieces of this year’s London Film Festival, had its European premiere on Saturday night at the Royal Festival Hall.
The film, starring Irish actors Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed 2020 novel of the same name.
Speaking of names, Hathaway is called Agnes, not Anne, which might be more accurate (it was how she was named in her father’s will) and is pronounced the French way, with a silent ‘g’.
Buckley’s performance is a proper tour de force. As it happens she stayed next door to us while they were shooting Hamnet near our Herefordshire home, and little did we know how much she must have needed to recharge her batteries every night.
It’s hard to unleash so much visceral emotion without over-acting. She does so triumphantly and, though she will get the plaudits, Mescal matches her.
Jessie Buckley is a proper tour de force in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, and while she will get the plaudits she deserves, Paul Mescal matches her (pictured at the film’s UK premiere)
He was propelled to fame by the 2020 series Normal People, though it wasn’t until All Of Us Strangers (2023) that he showed what a sensitive actor he is. But this is career-best stuff. Look out for those Oscar nominations.
Agnes, when we meet her, seems almost umbilically connected to the woodland surrounding her village.
As she comes and goes with a hawk on her arm, she catches the eye of a young man who is tutoring boys to pay off the debts of his father (David Wilmot).
Though the name is mentioned only once in the entire film, this is William Shakespeare (Mescal). He woos her, and after Agnes becomes pregnant, they get married.
Her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) questions the sense of marrying ‘a pasty-faced scholar’, but they are very much in love. Their first-born, Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), is followed by twins, Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe).
William is an engaged, doting father, especially with Hamnet. There’s a touching scene in which father and son say goodbye – because, to fulfil his ambitions as a writer, William must leave his family behind.
‘He needs to go to London,’ says Agnes. ‘London is where the whole world gathers.’
While he is making his name in the city, Judith falls ill with the bubonic plague. She recovers, but then Hamnet succumbs, aged 11.
Paul was propelled to fame by Normal People, though it wasn’t until All Of Us Strangers that he showed what a sensitive actor he is. This is career-best stuff. Look out for Oscar nominations
From here the film becomes a study of intense grief.
We are perhaps inclined to think these days that the loss of a child in times of plague, as in countries blighted by war or famine now, can’t be quite as harrowing. Zhao’s film and the performances of her leads give the lie to that.
For William, the creation of his tragedy Hamlet is a way of working through his misery.
The final part of the film takes us to the Globe and the first performance of Hamlet, with Agnes in the audience. It is an extraordinarily powerful few minutes of cinema.
The virtues of Hamnet extend far beyond the artistry of its director (also the co-writer, with O’Farrell herself) and the acting of Buckley and Mescal.
The younger cast members are all terrific, especially Jacobi Jupe in the title role.
Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal has excelled himself, too. Almost every interior shot looks like a Rembrandt painting.
As for Zhao, already a best director Oscar-winner for Nomadland (2020), she was introduced on to the stage on Saturday by one of the film’s producers, a fellow of some renown named Spielberg.
Duly empowered, she then exhorted the audience to join her in a breathing exercise.
It was a little weird, but gave some insight into how much of herself Zhao put into this film. After all, as Polonius says to Laertes in a certain play: ‘To thine own self be true.’
Hamnet opens on January 9.
