‘Hamnet’ Is A Devastatingly Beautiful Work of Cinema! Jessie Buckley Come Get Your Oscar!

 

By Evan L. Jackson

Any film adaptation about William Shakespeare feels romanticized and almost whimsical. With ‘Hamnet’ filmmaker Chloé Zhao soaks it in realism and painstaking grief. A grief no one should know as a loss of a child. Where William Shakespeare transforms his heartache into what we now know as the world famous play “Hamlet”. Paul Mescal is perfectly cast as a budding William Shakespeare who matures through the film. Jessie Buckley is shockingly great throughout the film and should be prepared to receive her first Oscar win with a career defining performance. Chloe Zhao continues to show she’s in an elite class of filmmaking: her usage of space is astounding and surely in the Oscars race for Best Director. One of the finest films of the year has you toiling in heartbreak, expression through one’s art and simply a couple dealing with an extraordinary loss. 

   When first hearing about this film I said of course, Paul Mescal taking on the role of portraying William Shakespeare is a great choice. But seeing the film it’s such a singular performance and coupled with Jessie Buckley it just fits perfectly. At first Paul’s performance is a strong headed romantic so in tune so in love that you feel caught up in the rapture. As the film goes on his approach matures and sad to say hardens and distant from his family. The isolation is a mystery for us but a coping mechanism for him after the horrific loss of his only son, Hamnet. The result of this his him creating the tragedy “Hamlet”. And wow, just wowed by this culminated within the film. Paul Mescal delivers a grounded Shakespeare that we have never seen the likes of on film, almost as if it’s an origin story for iconic large then life figure where we are seeing the roots of.

Jessie Buckley delivers one of the best performances of the decade and most certainly the best of the year. Our first introduction to her is Paul Mescal’s Shakespeare ensnared and hypnotized by her nature and in turn her deep bond with the forest. Seen as a “witch”, Shakespeare only digs in more when it comes to loving her and bridging her in as his wife. So as an audience you fee for her and you feel her. So when the scenes come and the loss of her and Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, you feel devastated. You feel a gut punch and an almost unfairness, asking yourself “Why him?”. This tenfold felt by Agnes Shakespeare, through Jessie you see the stages of grief. And her physical performance and stature almost in every scene a constant search for Hamnet. A disbelief that he’s gone. As Paul Mescal’s performance goes interior, Jessie’s performance is exterior and brilliantly sad and stunning.

   Chloe Zhao usage of landscape is on full display again and surpassing her other works. The landscape always felt like an additional character in her films but with “Hamnet” is surprisingly feels intimate. A bassinet of a forest for these lives to intertwine, break and be reborn. A testament to her filmmaking that her storytelling is just as Shakespeare’s words “Life is stage, people merely having there exits and entrances”. All of this comes together beautifully as one of the best films of the year and Jessie Buckley giving a performance of a lifetime.