Reviews

Jessie Buckley has already started winning awards for her performance in Hamnet and her streak will hopefully continue through to the Oscars in March.

Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s historical fiction novel of the same name, Hamnet imagines how William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) met his wife Agnes (Buckley) and what their life with their three children, Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and twins Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), looked like in 16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon.

After suffering an unimaginable loss, Agnes and William process their grief differently. She must find the strength to care for her family despite her devastation, while William is often away from home, channelling his emotions into his famous play Hamlet.

Make sure you’re emotionally prepared for Hamnet and well-equipped with tissues. It is an emotionally devastating exploration of love, family, loss and how people process grief differently, and you may come away feeling like you’ve been put through the wringer.

Some people might consider this film a bit too depressing, but it’s not bleak the whole way through. Yes, it’s intense, heart-breaking and emotionally brutal, but there’s a glimmer of hope there too.

Buckley is finally getting the attention she deserves after years of top-tier performances. She is on another level entirely here, showing us a raw and almost primal side that feels plucked from the depths of her soul.

She perhaps overeggs the emotions on a couple of occasions, but overall, her performance is extraordinary and well worth an Oscar.

In comparison, Mescal is much more subtle in his portrayal of grief, but no less moving. He may not be as big and loud as Buckley, but he is still very effective, as is Emily Watson as his mother Mary.

The three child stars are also impressive, particularly Jupe, who has an incredible emotional range for a 12-year-old. In a powerful piece of casting, his older brother Noah Jupe plays Hamlet in the first staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

The final act, where Agnes goes to London’s Globe Theatre to see Hamlet, goes on a bit too long and becomes less engrossing as it progresses, but Buckley’s reaction as an audience member watching the play holds it all together.

Director Chloe Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with O’Farrell, has made a gorgeous, heart-rending story that will likely sit with you long after the credits roll.

In cinemas Friday 9th January.

By Hannah Wales.

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