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HAMNET – Max Richter
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Director Chloe Zhao’s film Hamnet, which is based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell, is a lyrical reimagining of the brief life and death of Hamnet Shakespeare, the son of the legendary poet and writer William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes “Anne” Hathaway, musing on the fact that his passing may have inspired the creation of one of the greatest works of literature in history. The story centers mostly on Agnes, who is portrayed as a perceptive, intuitive woman with a deep connection to nature; the first half of the film looks at Agnes and William’s early courtship, their subsequent marriage, and offers a portrait of family life in Elizabethan England circa 1580, following the birth of their twin children Hamnet and Judith. In time William begins traveling to London to write and perform his plays, but eventually the spread of plague brings sickness to the Shakespeare household, and Judith falls gravely ill. Hamnet, who has been charged by his father with looking after the family in his absence, desperately attempts to help her, and asks God if he can swap places with her; Judith eventually recovers, but Hamnet contracts the plague too, and dies aged just eleven. After Hamnet’s death, the story then explores how Agnes and William grieve differently: Agnes’s sorrow is visceral and consuming, while William channels his grief into his work. Read more…
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