A One Mann’s Movies review of “Hamnet” (From the 2025 London Film Festival). (2025, 5*, 12A).
“Hamnet” is out tomorrow and in my books this is a “must see”. But make sure you take lots of tissues with you: it’s an emotional ride. Jessie Buckley has already just won the Best Actress award at the Critic’s Choice Awards, so my prediction is helped along just a tad already.
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Few films at the LFF have been as ‘Oscar-baity’ as “Hamnet” from the Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao. As I came out I said that it could win Best Film, Best Director and possibly even Best Actor. As for Best Actress, they might as well not bother to select four other actresses in the nominations list and give it straight to Jessie Buckley. For hers is a truly astonishing performance that must surely have that Oscar locked in.
The one pre-requisite for this film though…. tissues.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
The lowly Will (Paul Mescal) is working for the well-off Hathaway family in Shakespeare as a Latin tutor for their younger kids when he meets the eldest (adopted) daughter Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a wild-child of the forest. She is said to be “the child of a forest witch” and she certainly has witchy tendencies. He falls in love and, after a quick bonk on the stables table and against their parent’s wishes, marries her, with her already with child. But as their family grows, his work as a playwright takes him away to London for long periods.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Distressing scenes, brief moderate sex.”)
Talent:
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, Justine Mitchell, Emily Watson, David Wilmot, Jacobi Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Bodhi Rae Breathnach.
Directed by: Chloé Zhao.
Written by: Chloé Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell. (From the novel by Maggie O’Farrell.)
Running Time: 2h 5m.
Summary:
Positives:
- Simply astonishing performances from Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.
- Simply gorgeous to look at.
- The ending, set in the Globe theatre, is stunningly moving and powerful.
Negatives:
- Some at the festival have found the script far too on the nose regarding the play content. Particularly (and I agree)…
- … A Thames-side scene. No. Just no.
Full Review of “Hamnet”:
“And the Oscar goes to… Jessie Buckley”.
It’s astonishing to think where Jessie Buckley came from. She was, as many probably forget, runner up to Jodie Prenger in a BBC talent show search for a “Maria” for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of “The Sound of Music” in London). I called her out in “Wild Rose“, the first film of hers that I reviewed, as “one to watch”. And I was right!
Since then, she has added so much to so many great films. But she has really topped it all with this portrayal of Anne Hathaway, as we know her, or Agnes Hathaway as she was named on her father’s will. It’s a transcendent performance full of mystery, love, pain and despair. It’s so mesmerising that you literally can’t take your eyes off her face for every moment she’s on screen.
For all the other great female performances we’ve seen this year – and there have been lots – JESSIE is who will be getting my bet for Best Actress come March next year. Locked in. Final Answer.
Hamnet or Hamlet?
I had never come across the source book by Maggie O’Farrell (apparently, EVERYBODY else at the LFF has read it!), nor had I heard of the RSC play of the book. So I actually went into this film knowing nothing about it. Sure, I thought the title sounded a little like “Hamlet”. But as far as I was concerned, it could have been a film about a network or amateur CB enthusiasts set in the present day!
As the title card explains, the name “Hamlet” and “Hamnet” were used in documentation interchangeably in the 16th and 17th. Which is great news for the film-makers as they get to distinguish this film from the numerous other versions of “Hamlet” (I stopped trying to count them when I got to 50 on IMDB, and was still scrolling).
Hamnet was (without coincidence) also one of Will and Agnes’s children. As described here, “the eldest, Susanna, was baptised on 26 May 1583. They also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, baptised on 2 February 1585”. The latter part of the story concerns Hamnet… and the need for the copious supply of tissues. For it is not a happy tale.
A child of the woods.
I have no idea whether this is based on any sort of fact, but the film paints Agnes (Buckley) as a wild-child of the woods, just like her mother was. She chooses for the birth of her first child to head off to the woods alone to have the child. When her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) and Will (Paul Mescal) arrive… Ta dah! … there she is, cuddling the baby. No placenta. No mess. How exactly did she cut the cord… bit through it?
Not content with one unnatural birth, the birth of her twins takes place inside this time (against her will) and once again it is Ta dah! Brief pause. Ta dah! Two of the cleanest looking babies are cuddled but again no sign of any second labour to expel the placentae! Perhaps biology worked differently in the 16th century! 😉
Will is a playwright.
The film doesn’t actually drop the “S-bomb” until quite a long way into the film, but we all know where we are and what we are doing. It still took me a while to realise that the black mark on his right index finger wasn’t some manky Medieval skin disease but the ink from his continuously flowing pen.
Will clearly didn’t have the easiest life growing up, with an abusive father calling him “useless”, “tradeless” and a “pasty-faced scholar” and beating him at regular intervals. He is only working as a Latin teacher to earn money to pay off his father’s debts.
We see him first writing “Romeo and Juliet”, inspired by his love for Agnes who he woos in the woods. He declares his intentions early – “I wish to be handfasted to you” – bewitched by her charms and she agrees, “He loves me for what I art, not for what I am expected to be” she says. Will’s father is appalled, given the reputation of Agnes: “I’d rather you went to sea than marry that wench”. But there is no stopping them.
The family grows.
After the couple of (un-messy) childbirths, we see the family grow, reflecting the works that Shakespeare is now writing. A cute segment sees the three children performing the witches scene from “Macbeth”.
But things turn sour due to the plague and a very harrowing scene follows that I think stretches the 12A rating right to the edge of a 15 (so adults with sensitive children be warned). The film consistently harks back to Agnes’s supernatural qualities with her being able to see death at one point (the camera) lurking in the corner of the room.
Technically gorgeous.
Technically, the film is fabulous to look at, with stunning cinematography by Lukasz Zal, a Max Richter score and great production design, costume and hair/makeup work. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it doesn’t pick up a lot of additional Oscar nominations outside of the major categories.
Don’t Say It!!
The film’s low point for me comes when Will, in a state of severe depression, stands on the dockside staring into the swirling, deadly waters of the Thames. I was saying to myself “don’t say it…. Don’t Say It…. DON’T SAY IT!!” but then.. “To be, or not to be…”.
ARRGGGGHHH!
It is not clear whether this is his moment of inspiration for the soliloquy from “Hamlet” or whether he has already written the words and just found it appropriate at this moment to recite them. But either way, it is such a crass moment that I considered docking a star off the rating. For me, that one moment will lose the film its Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination.
The Globe.
The final 20-odd minutes of the film are set in The Globe theatre during a showing (the premiere showing?) of “Hamlet” with Will himself playing the ghost of the king. Of course, Agnes has worked her way to the very front row and with an appalling breakage of ‘the code’ actively interrupts the play’s proceedings. I will say no more, but it is one of the most compelling and moving bits of cinema I’ve seen in a while.
Summary Thoughts:
A film that will be a litmus test for whether you have a heart or a rock in there! I thought “Hamnet” was superb and – from the current IMDB score of 8.3 – it looks like the majority of early viewers agree. I heard some dissent from my fellow LFF attendees, but I think this is one that mainstream audiences will flock to. It opens in UK cinemas on January 9th 2026.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2xtmPkuksA.
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