Synopsis
In Hamnet, director Chloé Zhao, known the fantastic Nomadland, takes us to 1580s England to tell the story of Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a woman often described as a “Witch of the forest.” She falls in love with a young Latin tutor named William (Paul Mescal), who history will later know as William Shakespeare.
While the marketing hooks you with the literary legend and the tragic death of their son Hamnet (which inspired Hamlet), the film itself is something rawer. It is a story about a family living on the edge of civilization, battling nature, disease, and isolation, while the famous father is largely absent in London. It is a survival drama disguised as a biopic, focusing almost entirely on the woman left behind to hold the world together.
What I Liked
The “Witch of the Forest” (Jessie Buckley) The absolute highlight of this film is Jessie Buckley. I’ve seen her in Men and other films, but she never seems to get the credit she deserves. Here, she portrays Agnes not as a standard “heroine” who puts family first out of duty, but as a thick-skinned, nature oriented survivor. She is wild, competent, and deeply attached to the fields. The movie is really her story, not William’s.
The Rawness of the Setting Chloé Zhao is a master of natural light and landscapes, and she applies that here perfectly. The film makes you feel the precariousness of 16th-century life. You feel the cold, the mud, and the fragility of raising children in the woods without support. It gave me a new appreciation for how civilization has managed to move forward through sheer sacrifice and strength.
The Visuals It is undeniably beautiful. If you want an experience that immerses you in nature and the “rawness” of the past, this film delivers. It’s a visual meditation on survival.
What Could Be Better
The “Shakespeare” Marketing Trap I feel a bit sad about how this movie is framed. It is marketed as “The story of Shakespeare’s son,” but that is just the hook to grab attention from viewers and critics. The literary connection feels forceful. Like a commercial wrapper around a story that should have been allowed to stand on its own. The final act tries to bridge the gap between the family’s tragedy and William’s play (Hamlet), but it feels disconnected from the reality we just watched.
The Absence of the Father The film focuses so heavily on the family’s struggle that William’s life in London feels like a footnote. While this is intentional to put Agnes on the center, it creates a weird friction where the movie’s emotional climax relies on a play written by a character who wasn’t really there for the struggle.
My Insight
The label sells the art, but the truth is in the struggle. We live in an era where you need a “hook” to get a project made. You can’t just tell a story about a struggling mother in the 1580s; you have to say, “This is Mrs. Shakespeare.” The directors and writers know this. They use the famous name to get the green light, then use the runtime to show what they find relevant: the resilience of Agnes. I don’t feel deceived, but I feel a quiet sadness that so many great performances (like Buckley’s here) might fade away if they don’t have a marketable hook or IP attached to them.
Rating 🌟7/10.
A visually stunning, nature focused survival story that happens to be attached to a famous last name. Interesting, but likely to be forgotten in a few years.
Recommendation: Go for the visuals and Jessie Buckley, ignore the Shakespeare hype.
For Discussion
Would you have watched this movie if it was just called Agnes and had no connection to Shakespeare? Does art always need a “famous hook” to survive in the modern market?
Related Works
Men (2022) – To see Jessie Buckley in another role where she confronts nature and trauma.
Nomadland (2020) – For Chloé Zhao’s signature style of finding beauty in harsh, realistic landscapes.
Shakespeare in Love (1998) – For the opposite approach: a romanticized, commercially glossy take on the bard.
The Witch (2015) – For a darker look at a family surviving on the edge of the woods in a similar era.
Technical Info
- Director: Chloé Zhao
- Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal
- Platform: On movie theaters
- Year: 2025
- Genre: Historical Drama
