Jessie Buckley shines in Hamnet, director Chloe Zhao’s gorgeous Shakespeare grief drama

Hamnet (M18)

126 minutes, opens on Jan 22
★★★★☆

The story: Latin tutor William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and the strong-willed Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a woman skilled in healing, fall in love. The aspiring playwright moves to London because that is where the theatre is, and Agnes remains in Stratford-upon-Avon, caring for their three children. When their 11-year-old son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) dies of illness, a distraught William pours himself into writing as Agnes grieves alone.

In this fictionalised account of a historical event, film-maker Chloe Zhao does what she does best: She makes difficult emotions visible, staying with her characters as they learn what to feel, and when to feel them.

That emotional sensitivity has shot the China-born director to the top of the awards table, with her drama Nomadland (2020) – her third feature – winning Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.

That film was a book adaptation, as is this work, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, which fills the blanks left by history after the Shakespeares lost their son to the plague.

This film, and the novel, is an unapologetically modern take on an event that took place in 1596.

There are film-makers who plunge audiences into the psychological landscapes of another place or time period to show how alien it all used to be. But Zhao is interested only in having viewers relate to her characters, showing that across time, parents have always dealt with the wound of losing a child the same way.

William and Agnes grieve the way a contemporary couple would, short of going to see a therapist. Instead, they self-therapeutise.

But before the story grapples with the trauma that changes the direction of their lives, Zhao puts most of her focus on Agnes – first as the strong-willed wild child of exasperated parents, then as the wife of a man who can only watch, and never contain, the force of nature that he married.

This is Zhao’s famous female gaze at work – Agnes embodies femininity through her primal connection with the earth, healing plants and pet hawk.

Once again, Hamnet’s modern take comes through. Her witch-like behaviour elicits nothing more than gossip, when such talk back then could put a woman in danger of arrest or worse.

One can argue that Zhao and Canadian film-maker James Cameron (the Avatar sci-fi fantasy franchise, 2009 to present) romanticise mother goddess paganism, showing it as a more authentic mode of existence.

Zhao gets away with pushing that line through the breathtaking beauty of her images of Agnes in the forest, with the shock of her red dress set against the deep green of the trees.

When pagan propaganda is this well done, it is best to sit back and enjoy it. Hamnet’s death is honoured for what it is – a tragedy – before the story uses it as an inciting incident that addresses the power of art to transform pain into beauty.

Hot take: Zhao’s deft touch with emotional subject matter and Buckley’s extraordinary performance elevate this modern take on grief into a beautifully crafted tearjerker.