Chloe Zhao (acclaimed director of Nomadland) treats the story with dignity, passion and dedication. Knowing how tough the scenes would be to film, she insisted on the cast having dancing sessions after particularly difficult takes
It was always going to be a weepy one.
Hamnet, the little boy who would not make it past his eleventh year, the only son of William Shakespeare and the supposed inspiration behind one of the greatest tragic plays of all time, is at the heart of this Academy Award-tipped masterpiece. The film, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s gloriously descriptive novel of the same name, which imagines the circumstances around the young boy’s death, will have you sobbing into your scarf. That’s what I did anyway.
Instead of the bard (played with humanity and tenderness by Paul Mescal) taking centre stage as he so often does in films of his life, he is very much a supporting character. His wife, Agnes (played by Jessie Buckley, a deserving winner of all the awards she’s scooped so far this season), is the so-called daughter of a witch who spends her days in the lushly filmed forest making medicinal concoctions from herbs and roots. Life seems perfectly idyllic with three children running around until the threat of the unnamed illness ruining lives in London finally creeps its way into the family’s household to claim the life of one of the three Shakespeare children.
The film, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s gloriously descriptive novel of the same name, which imagines the circumstances around the young boy’s death, will have you sobbing into your scarf. That’s what I did anyway.
Chloe Zhao (acclaimed director of Nomadland) treats the story with dignity, passion and dedication. Knowing how tough the scenes would be to film, she insisted on the cast having dancing sessions after particularly difficult takes, one clip of which circulated on Instagram recently, of everyone jumping around to Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’.
There is a clever piece of casting for the young Hamnet and the boy who plays the character of Hamlet in Shakespeare’s famous play towards the end of the film. Real-life brothers, Jacobi and Noah Jupe, lend the film their likeness, which goes a long way toward affording Agnes and Will some closure over their son’s death. Both actors are ones to watch in the future.
Despite the devastating story, there is romance, lyricism and quiet moments of wit woven throughout the film, which is a relief; otherwise, it really would be a depression-fest. Easily one of the stand-out films of the year, but it will have you running home to your children for a big old hug.
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