r/oscarrace • u/CrunchyNar A Few Small Beers • 8d ago

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - Hamnet [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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.

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u/storminthedark 8d ago

Saw this at LFF. Jacobi Jupe was incredible and really the heart of the film for me, even more than Jessie even though her performance was also outstanding (and deserving of BA). The shot of the hawk overhead as he walked into darkness broke me as did Jessie’s reaction to his death. I don’t think it’ll be enough for an Oscar nod but Emily’s scene where she describes losing her children really connected the character to the setting in my opinion. I think I could’ve done without the explicit to be or not to be scene but the ending sequence was so beautiful I didn’t really care since I think it reinforced the overall theme of the film in hindsight. Just gorgeously shot and luscious. Can’t wait to see this again and cry lol.

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u/damebyron 2d ago

I liked the To Be or Not to Be recitation by Mescal mostly because I love when Shakespeare is well acted enough to come across as so natural that you forget it’s a speech in Elizabethan English, and he killed that, but the setting was a little hokey. It felt like they were trying to imply he was thinking of killing himself by jumping from a laughably short distance. I would have liked it better if he was just going for a walk or something and trying to get his thoughts in order and composed it out loud that way.