GENRE: Drama
DIRECTOR: Chloé Zhao
WRITER: Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell
STARRING: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Jacobi Jupe, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn and Noah Jupe
Thanks to an excellent source material, a sensitive direction and a commited ensemble cast, Hamnet is one of those rare literary adaptations done right for which the final result reaches the caliber of the novel. It's not a perfect film, but it's a film that embraces those imperfections and highlights what it has best: a pulsating heart! Might well be the most romantic and subtle movie of the year with the most visceral impact as it explores very powerful feelings with a rare audience-engaging effect.Hamnet starts with the promise of a romantic drama but as soon as the narrative starts developing you understand it goes well beyond a love story. Agnes and Will relationship is fueled by love, but it's imperfect and thorny at times - still, love speaks louder and the fact they know they are very different and unique people makes them handle their issues. Agnes (Buckley) is presented in red - a color that speaks to her fiery and emotional side - while Will (Mescal) is always dressed in blue - a colder color that recalls the intellect - and it's beautiful to see how colors assume different tones as life moves forward, specially Agnes' dresses who become less fiery red and turn into a more auburn red as she becomes a mother and a more temperated woman. Despite all that could made them apart (from Will going to London in pursue of a theatre career and Agnes decision to stay in the countryside to keep their children safe to the very different way both experience gried), there are acts of love that repeat during the film - beautifully similar shots with different context but the same nuance, like different painting from the same collection. This is very much the visual language of Chloé Zhao - a subtle yet refined directing choice that speaks millions without having to take on-screen time to explain it since love is in everyday's acts. It's also a statement about the women's role versus the men's roles: the women are the ones who stay, who fight, who protect, those who give up their old ambitions because the family they built are their new ambition. Women stay and they stay strong in the constant absence of men.
Despite a strong directing hand, it is the acting that really elevate the film. As Agnes, Jessie Buckley shines bright in a highly dramatic part that also recquires her to be irrational, emotive, fiery, loving, sweet and ferocious - it's an amazing part and the actress delivers a phenomenal performance (a career-defining one I would dare to say). Paul Mescal features another well-balanced dramatic performance, but it's a far more internal acting turn compared to Buckley's - through his eyes he can mirror Will's feelings and the pain of his own existence, but his character recquires this stoic approach by contrast to Agnes: yin yang acting! In the supporting roles, there's an ensemble cast that deliver rich performances with a perfectly calibrated Emily Watson reminding us why she is one of the best working actresses these days (she only needs a starring part) and the young Jacobi Jupe delivering a moving acting performance in an impressive breakthrough turn that shows his ability to generate empathy and an ability to touch your heart through those expressive eyes - his "I will be brave!" just destroyed me from inside.
Technically, Hamnet is beautifully well-made: Lukasz Zal's cinematography makes almost every frame look like a painting by highlighting visually beautiful moments in what looks like a symetrical yet unpretentious way; production design and costume design works transport you to Shakespeare's England (specially to the Globe theatre); and the score by Max Richter transports you to a world of love, grief and closure, with the composer re-using his own track "On the Nature of Daylight" to craft a truly unforgettable ending.
So, Hamnet is one of the most emotional movies of the year since it works more as a study about love and grief than the romantic drama some might think it is. Jessie Buckley and Jacobi Jupe both deliver tremendous performances and theirs is the heart of the movie and while I didn't appreciated every tear-inducing directing choice of Zhao (including the whole audience sharing Agnes pain in the end), this is a movie who's is truly faithful to its own core: to handle the most complex human emotions (and it succeeds largely). There was silence in the end.
RATING: 8,5/10
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