From start to finish, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet is an unmistakable masterpiece and easily the best movie of the year. Brilliantly shot with a vibrancy that’s almost devastating for such tragedy, yet that’s part of where the heart lies—in the details of the earth and everything that goes beyond human understanding.
There’s a lot of buzz around the movie, and it has been since it premiered at TIFF earlier this year. But also, the hype has been around from the casting announcements, and for many people, it might not exactly live up to it because Hamnet isn’t a perfect film, but it’s undoubtedly a memorable one. It’s the type of movie that, though many of us may not be able to rewatch, we’re never going to forget everything it evokes.
Jessie Buckley Delivers the Best Performance of the Decade in Hamnet
And so much of the reason the film is as evocative is entirely because of Jessie Buckley, who not only delivers the best performance of the year, but of the decade. Yes, of the decade. That’s not a hyperbole. Grief and loss and the devastation that comes from a child dying on screen are going to impact even the most closed-off people, but how Buckley bears the depth of a mother’s love is something that I haven’t seen in years. It’s raw, indescribable, and utterly harrowing. Haunting. Her range has been obvious for a while now, but everything we get in Hamnet is something else entirely—a sensational, jaw-dropping performance. A role for which there are genuinely very few words.
There’s a magnetism to the way she carries Agnes Shakespeare (Hathaway) through every stage of her life that touches on the type of performance that feels utterly cosmic. Like this was a role meant solely for her, and even the most gifted actresses in Hollywood couldn’t have done what she does. While the movies aren’t similar, it takes me back to Sophie’s Choice in a lot of ways, and how, when we think of that role, so much of Meryl Streep’s prowess comes to mind—the type of unforgettable performance that schools use as an example.
Jessie Buckley captivates and moves through every frame in a manner that feels insurmountable. Loud yet achingly tender at the same time. Bold and small, simultaneously. How she depicts various human dualities with such ease is simply breathtaking. Every extension of her hand, every gaze—stories upon stories where I don’t even think Shakespeare’s best sonnets could capture the depth of what she shows us.
Where Grief and Art Perpetually Intermingle
Hamnet is the story of a little boy who desperately and heroically gives his all for his sister, but it’s also the story of a mother. It’s a story about grief and the different means in which we feel it, break because of it, and perhaps, more importantly, how we immortalize it. It’s a reimagining of a point in history we don’t have many answers to that somehow still feels deeply honorable. Poignant and profound in showcasing all the different ways that love manifests itself in written works that live on long after human beings.
In many ways, Hamnet breaks you right from the start with the mention of Orpheus and Eurydice. If you know the story, then you understand the harrowing pangs of what desperation could lead to. How loving someone so fiercely can also direct you straight toward calamity. Heartbreak comes in many forms throughout the narrative, and it’s in large part due to how raw the art of storytelling will perpetually be. How creators don’t know anything better than how to immortalize—to find words and meaning to make sense of the tragedies because death goes beyond our human understanding, and we won’t ever have concrete answers.
And yet, we find a way, searching through nature or the people we love while we rattle our minds to swim through the waves of grief.
Through its means of asking questions—the infamous line everyone and their mother knows, even if they don’t know Shakespeare—Hamnet demands that you feel every emotion. It carefully pokes and probes and touches on the depths of love and loss, all while delivering a brilliantly shot and cast movie. I single out Jessie Buckley, but make no mistake in thinking that everyone else in the cast isn’t as excellent. Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, and each of the kids (Jacobi Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Bodhi Rae Breathnach)—they all deliver the type of performances that shake you.
Hamnet is coming to theaters on November 26.
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