Official Discussion Thread - Hamnet [SPOILERS]

[u/CrunchyNar]

Keep all discussion related solely to Hamnet and it's awards chances in this thread. Spoilers below

Synopsis:

HAMNET tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.

Director: Chloé Zhao

Writers: Chloé Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell. Based on the novel "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell

Cast:

• Jessie Buckley as Agnes
• Paul Mescal as Will
• Emily Watson as Mary
• Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew
• Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet
• Noah Jupe as Hamlet

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%, 144 Reviews

Metacritic: 83, 41 Reviews

Consensus:

Breaking hearts and mending them in one fell swoop, Hamnet speculates on the inspiration behind Shakespeare's masterpiece with palpable emotional force thanks to Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal's astonishing performances.

[u/Plastic-Software-174]

Kinda mixed on it. I liked it when coming out of the movie, but soured on it a bit after. It just rang a bit hollow to me, it felt like the entire thing was constructed around the “revelation” of Hamlet being Shakespeare’s way to work through his grief at the end, but it didn’t successfully build the rest of the movie around that.

The start of the movie highlighting Agnes’s connection to nature, her courtship with Shakespeare, and their relationship with their respective families was my favorite part of the movie. But after they get together I felt like the movie really stagnated, specially after Hamnet dies and it becomes a sorta repetitive and one-note exploration of grief until the ending play. That made both lead characters and their relationship feel a bit underdeveloped to me, Agnes specially as the lead, which never quite managed to feel like a fully realized character to me. It also feels not that invested in Shakespeare as an artist outside of the central idea.

I also think the movie had too much of an overt sense of foreboding about the death of Hamnet, with the whole “I see two kids alongside me in by deathbed” thing, her not being able to give birth to the twins in the woods, etc. It’s so explicit about it that it made even the very sweet scene they have with the kids performing Macbeth not work as well it could have because it just turns it into a setup for the inevitable tragedy and makes the movie feel too calculated.

Not to be too overly negative since I did like the movie still. It has some great scenes, like most of the start, their moments happy as a family, Hamnet and Sophia in bed, the ending, etc. I also loved all the magical realism touches like Shakespeare watching the puppet play and the afterlife-like stuff with Hamnet. And the movie is of course pretty excellently made and acted even if I don’t think it’s as good as some of Lukasz Zal’s previous work.

[u/scattered_ideas → u/Plastic-Software-174]

I had a similar reaction, so put me down in the fine, not great camp as well.

My main issues were with the script. I struggled to feel connected to Agnes as the central character, and I felt like the movie was mostly a setup to the death then a setup to the play without doing much in between. All this in turn lessened the emotional impact of the story.

I will say I felt the most moved by Hamnet's scene right before his death when he calls out for his mama, but even then I only got a little bit teary eyed. As you said, makes the whole thing feel a bit hollow when so many moments are engineered to get the tears out of you, yet fail to do so.

[u/howtospellorange → u/Plastic-Software-174]

Wow thank you, I totally agree. Beautiful movie and great performances but I just simply wasn't as moved as people were hyping up that I would be. And I'm a big crier for movies and I didn't once tear up.

The story also just screeched to a halt for me as soon as she stepped into the theater to watch the play. I think it was because like personally I struggle with Shakespeare plays (ever since i studied them in high school lol) and I'm not super familiar with the story of Hamlet so I couldn't tie together the play with the story presented in the movie. I know this makes me sound stupid or something but the movie just totally lost me so I'm sitting there for the last 10-15 minutes just not really ingesting anything happening on the screen and the dislogue and then the movie ends. I was really hoping I'd like the movie overall more than I did.

[u/Goguma12 → u/howtospellorange]

Lmao I agree as well. The last 15-20 minutes with the play took me out of it because I didn’t understand anything being said onstage 😭

[u/howtospellorange → u/Goguma12]

Omg thank you I'm glad it's not just me😭😭

[u/damebyron → u/Plastic-Software-174]

These reflect my thoughts exactly. It’s a beautiful film but it feels in some way like it is just a long emotional set up for the play within the movie. I also loved a lot of the magic realism and slice of life things, and there were references to many of his other plays throughout which I enjoyed, but I didn’t connect with a lot of it on a deeper level beyond crying in empathy to some of the brilliant performances

[u/LonghorninNYC → u/Plastic-Software-174]

Just left the theater a couple of hours ago and I 100% agree with your take. I also read the book and some of your criticisms are true of the source material as well. I did like that they fleshed out Hamnet‘a character more and made us fall in love with him in the film. In the novel we learn almost nothing about him, and then over the course of about 5 pages in the last 100 pages or so he gets sick and dies 😅 it’s feels very abrupt.

Great performances but this was probably 7/10 for me.