As someone who is not familiar with the story of Hamlet, I went to watch this film without knowing anything at all. I’ve seen all the praises for Chloe Zhao’s direction and I’m not surprised. After her failed Eternals movie, she needed a comeback. She needed a film that would revolutionize, and she did. She delivered a touching, devastating story that will warm your hearts but at the same time destroy it.
After her son Hamnet dies, aged eleven, Agnes Shakespeare is struck with intense grief. As she mourns with her husband William, the pair struggle to come to terms with the frailty of life and the ruthlessness of the plague. Set in 16th-century England, Agnes, a healer by trade, must find a way to move on with her life and provide for her other children.
Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal deliver outstanding performances. We get to see the story of them falling in love and it’s so amusing and touching. We see them growing up together as a couple to until the day that their daughter gets sick. It’s sad and they got to do something about it and that’s when Hamnet gave his life to save his sister from the plague. The way Chloe manages to tell this story is what shocks me the most, the way it has you on the edge of your seat the entire team, you go through the desperation that the character is also going through.
The film is purely gorgeous and has an amazing score. This movie got me in every single way possible. Hamnet is a beautiful tale of grief, love and the way it’s beautifully told is what makes this one of the most remarkable films of the decade.
Hamnet is NOW playing in theaters.
