Hamnet Review: A Simple Story That Will Break Your Heart

I didn’t expect to care so much about a dead child. But there I was — tears just dropping without warning or reason, sitting through the credits, not ready to leave.

Hamnet is a simple story beautifully executed. Directed by Chloé Zhao, a total 180 from her last release, Eternals, it captures their little world: Will and Agnes, artists who didn’t much care about the world outside their own. And that’s what artists do. They turn tragedy into art. They immortalize through words. You don’t even need to know the story of Hamlet.

Jessie Buckley is well deserving of Best Actress at the Oscars. The performances across the board are beautiful, but it’s her film. The score is gorgeous and a big part of the journey — it takes you along. Beautiful wardrobe and set pieces capture the time and place. You’re caught in this formative moment in Will’s life.

Even as I was half on my phone, even as I didn’t understand a quarter of the dialogue, the film is so powerful, the aura so definite, that the story just takes you.

My wife said the ending theme — Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight,” also used in Arrival — almost took her out of it because it’s so familiar. But she stayed in. I didn’t even know it wasn’t made for this film. Nonetheless, really well-made.

If you want to cry and you have a heart, you will cry watching this film. It sticks to your heart far after the credits fade and the cinema lights come up again.

4.5/5

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