Director: Chloé Zhao
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 126 mins

Hamnet is the new film by Chloé Zhao, best known for her Best Picture and Best Director Oscar-winning film Nomadland in 2020. I’ve been rather mixed on her filmography – I thought Nomadland was fine but not Best Picture material, I really wasn’t a fan of The Rider and I liked Eternals, her divisive Marvel Cinematic Universe effort which I admired exactly because it upset the apple cart. Still, there’s no denying she has a distinctive style, with her Terrence Malick-like documentary aesthetics combined with themes of self-discovery and marginalised communities.

An adaptation of the 2020 novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet dramatises the life of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) from their courtship to how they cope with the tragic death of their 11-year-old son. The film has received quite the critical acclaim.

But I found Hamnet to be a very disappointing experience, an overlong, emotionally manipulative film that continuously and aggressively tries to get its audience to weep. Zhao’s film has the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Rather than getting invested in the depressing events it depicts and really feeling for the characters, I found myself rolling my eyes on multiple occasions and on the border of sniggering during what’s supposed to be a traumatic childbirth sequence because the film grossly overeggs it.

What’s more, I don’t understand the praise Jessie Buckley is receiving for her performance here – I thought she was terrible. I’ve had mixed feelings on her past performances – I appreciated her performances in films such as I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Men and Wicked Little Letters but she was woeful in Women Talking and The Lost Daughter. To this day, I can’t believe she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the latter with her wandering attempt at a British accent. In Hamnet, the problem is she’s simply miscast and her natural smirk does her no favours with her character’s emotional baggage. It’s unfortunate Buckley is also saddled with some rather trite dialogue.

Paul Mescal fares better, even if his Shakespeare is underdeveloped, but at least it’s a quiet performance where we’re invited to ponder how he might be feeling through his silences, emotionally distant expressions. This is a hurting character and the only way he can process the various tragedies he has experienced is by leaving his family behind and taking to developing his stage plays.

Max Richter can always be trusted to turn in a reliable score – and that’s true to an extent here. His moody music is sparsely used in the first half, but becomes more prevalent in the latter half and there’s a few excellent and memorable cues. But unfortunately, the film makes a choice to use what is perhaps his most notable work ‘On The Nature of Daylight’ in the closing scenes – and this is another factor that really hurts Hamnet. It’s a powerful piece, used to striking effect in works such as Shutter Island and The Last of Us – although it didn’t quite work for me in Arrival.

Richter reportedly was set to use original score for Hamnet’s ending, but apparently the inclusion of this prolific piece was suggested by Jessie Buckley. After already becoming withered and grey for the best part of an exasperating two hours in a film that’s tried and failed to get me to cry, ‘On The Nature of Daylight’s inclusion was the cherry on top of my frustrations and again, I snickered and rolled my eyes at the overcooked finale.

Elsewhere, Łukasz Żal’s (of Ida and The Zone of Interest fame) cinematography is occasionally beautiful, the highlight being how he captures the Globe Theatre, but I thought much of the film was unnecessarily dim, failing to convey the mood it’s trying to achieve.

Hamnet is ultimately a big disappointment. Its biggest problem is tone – Zhao tries to force-feed the emotion of the tragic events rather than being delicate. This is odd because the director’s style is one of delicacy and minimalism. In fact, Hamnet doesn’t really feel like a Chloé Zhao film because it’s lacking that meditative and thoughtful energy – none of her films have been emotionally manipulative or (I hate to say it) felt like Oscar bait. One of my issues with Nomadland was that it never quite managed to stick the emotional wallop it needed, but it’s the opposite problem here.

The core problems of Hamnet‘s script and tone not working then feed into the performances, and Jessie Buckley doesn’t have the chops to save it. Throw in the egregious use of ‘On The Nature of Daylight’ and scenes that evoke laughter rather than tears and it’s a recipe for disaster. At least Paul Mescal gets away with his reputation relatively unscathed. It’s saddening that Hamnet is dissatisfying on so many levels and I’m frightened at what Oscars it might get nominated for and win – it’s properly pants!