I love Shakespeare. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that on this blog? Longtime readers please correct me, but I don’t think I’ve written any posts on Shakespeare before? Nevertheless, I felt compelled to write this review of the recent historical drama Hamnet, adapted from a book by Maggie O’Farrell, which is all about Shakespeare’s wife and the loss of their son.

For full disclosure, I’ve not read the novel and, while I’ve read and seen the play Hamlet a couple of times, it’s not a play I’m intimately familiar with. In Austin, Texas, where I grew up, there is a program at the University of Texas called Shakespeare-at-Winedale. I was lucky enough to take part in their outreach program for teens, so I spent my childhood summers acting in Shakespeare plays in a big barn with other nerdy kids. Pure bliss. I just looked it up and the program I took part in – Camp Shakespeare – is still running! Shakespeare Camp is all about “play” and encountering Shakespeare through performing the text and bringing it to life with other people. It taught me so much and instilled in me a deep love for Shakespeare, which I carried with me all through university (when, for example, I was in a production of Macbeth in a ruined 14th century Scottish abbey!).

Even now, I still regularly go see Shakespeare plays and sing songs from his plays when I’m washing the dishes. Like I said – I’m a big fan. If you love words, reading Shakespeare aloud is as good as it gets. His words taste sweet in your mouth. He’s a legend for a reason. His plays are bawdy, and strange, and silly, and profound, and complex, and beautifully, beautifully written.

All this preamble is just to say that I went into this film as a long-time Shakespeare performer and appreciator, hoping to learn something new or to look at one of his most famous plays in a different way. And the film has a lot of good things in it. There’s no doubt about that. It’s well made. It’s stylish. Visually, it reminded me a little bit of The Witch (which I talked about on this blog a long time ago), especially some of the subtly spooky images that we get (the gaping mouth of a cave in Agnes Shakespeare’s forest, for example).

But did I like the movie? Eh, not really.

Before I talk about what I didn’t like, here’s some stuff that I did:

The performances. Jessie Buckley is captivating as Agnes Shakespeare and this really is her movie. Will is more of a side character and his plays are very much in the background. She’s foregrounded as a mysterious, almost otherworldly character. Her mother is rumored to be a “forest witch” (shades of Caliban?) and she has kind of an impish presence (maybe it’s her cheeky smile?). She played a similar character actually in Wicked Little Letters – a woman who is ahead of her time, a bit of a social outcast and a loner who doesn’t really play by the rules. And her portrayal of Agnes’ grief at their son’s death was hard to watch. Her screaming and sobbing really left me feeling very wrung out by the end of it, and emotionally quite exhausted when I left the cinema.

And I’ve got to shout out the child actors! Jacobi Jupe in particular who plays Hamnet is one of the best child actors I’ve ever seen!! The range of emotions that he was giving off was so complex and so subtle. I think many adult actors could learn a thing or two from this boy who is probably like 11 years old?! Wow.

The set. I loved the low roofs of the houses, the costumes, and all the subtle historical details. Like in one dinner scene you don’t see them using forks at the table…because people didn’t! I enjoyed all the material details the director Chloe Zhao chose to include.

Now, here are some of my issues with the film:

Let’s start with a smaller one. It’s not a big deal, but people talk in pretty modern ways (they say things like “okay” and “yeah!”). Which makes it sort of weird when we see people performing Shakespeare’s plays, which are written in old-timey English. It feels like they’re putting on historical plays? But those plays are contemporary! This is set in Shakespeare’s England! If they didn’t have the plays, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but it threw into very stark relief how modern the dialogue felt.They did the classic “historical movie” thing of just taking out the contractions (so instead of saying “I don’t want that” people say “I do not want that”). Compare that to The Witch, which felt incredibly “of the time” and was a lot stronger for it. Throwing in a couple of “thee”s and “thou”s might have been cool, right?

And now my big complaint. Shakespeare’s plays are full of all kinds of different emotions. Even the darkest ones have humor and moments of levity. I felt like this was very one-note and HEAVY. I’m not asking it to be Shakespeare in Love, although…I sort of wish it was! I love the humor in that film and the romance. Although I guess you could say that Shakespeare in Love is a tribute to his comedies, while this one is a tribute to his tragedies.

Still, I wanted more of a mix of light and dark. I think that would have made the darker moments even more powerful. We do see their kids playing around and, prior to that, a bit of Will and Agnes’ courtship. It wasn’t relentless darkness. But, considering how funny Shakespeare is and how spirited Agnes apparently was…I wanted more.

I also listened to Mark Kermode’s review of the film, thinking that he would have loved it. But he didn’t. And I found myself 100% agreeing with him that the film was trying too hard to make you cry. It wanted it too badly. Honestly – it felt too melodramatic for me. Maybe that’s harsh? It felt like the film KNEW it was a tear-jerker and was almost smug about that?

I did cry, but perhaps not because of the “right” reasons. I cried during the climactic scene because – no spoilers – I was thinking about the power of live theatre to unite people and how art can transform a terrible experience into something beautiful that even strangers can relate to. And that’s part of what the climax is trying to say, I think, but also you’re supposed to feel really connected to Agnes and to cry because of her terrible loss and how she’s learning to live with it. There weren’t too many people in the theatre with me, but I think they were all crying. So, mission accomplished, I guess?

But is the film about the transformative power of theatre? Not really, because we don’t spend much time talking or thinking about the theatre. All of that is far away in London and we’re in Stratford with Agnes for most of the time.

Is it about the unsung woman behind one of the “great male writers” of all time? Perhaps, but even that feels a little unsatisfying because this is a highly fictionalized version of her – albeit an interesting one. And the real Shakespeare himself is such a mysterious figure…I don’t believe that this is the definitive version of his story by any means (not that it’s trying to be).

Maybe it’s just about a grieving family? That feels the closest to the truth. But…could they have made that more interesting? More complex somehow? More…something.

It lacked something for me and it was bordering on, as I said, melodrama. It didn’t feel complex or particularly “thought-provoking”. Not that films need to be either of those things, but I would argue that films about Shakespeare probably should be!

I know I’m in the minority here. I mentioned Mark Kermode’s review, but it seems like everyone else liked it. Including a close friend whose taste I really respect who recommended it to me. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. I found this review in The Independent, which is pretty damning, but I honestly agree with a lot of it. It also kind of broke my heart to read in that review that the director – Chloe Zhao – is not a fan of Shakespeare. If that’s true…what?! Why make this film? That’s very confusing indeed and perhaps offers a clue why this feels so disconnected from the writer I love so much.

That’s my review and I WISH it was a better one. Like I said, it’s a well-made film and very atmospheric. By no means a “bad movie”! I can’t speak to the book and that’s a different medium entirely (even though O’Farrell co-wrote the screenplay).

Let me know what you thought of the film adaptation though (or the book if you’ve read it!) and thank you for sitting through this (very long!) review. If you’re looking for books or films about or inspired by Shakespeare and his plays, I’ve included a few favorites below:

• Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt (I read this years ago and loved it. It does talk about the death of Hamnet. “Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World is widely recognised to be the fullest and most brilliant account ever written of Shakespeare’s life, his work and his age.”)
• Much Ado about Nothing (1993 version with Emma Thompson – love!)
• Ten Things I Hate About You (It’s The Taming of the Shrew and seems to care about that text more than Hamnet cares about Hamlet. Harsh, but true?)
• Shakespeare in Love (Is it “historically accurate”? Probably not. But it’s romantic and adventurous and fun and Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I is iconic)

Madeira Mondays are posted on the first Monday of every month and explore history and historical fiction. If you enjoyed this post please share it, subscribe to the blog, or you can support the blog by buying me a coffee on Kofi! There are many more historical adventures and journeys to share, and I thank you so much for reading!