Hamnet: LFF Film Review
Stop the speculation! This year’s Best Actress Oscar is already a lock for me. If Jessie Buckley doesn’t win for Hamnet, I’ll eat my hat!
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s historical fiction novel of the same name, Hamnet imagines William Shakespeare’s (Paul Mescal) life with his wife Agnes (Buckley) and their three children, Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and twins Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and speculates how an unimaginable loss inspired one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays, Hamlet.
You’ll definitely need to bring tissues to this one. Hamnet delivers an emotional gut-punch that’ll have you crying in your seat for quite a while. It is an emotionally devastating exploration of love, family and grief and how people cope with loss differently. For instance, Agnes wallows in her grief and can barely function and thinks Shakespeare feels nothing, but he’s channelling his feelings creatively through Hamlet.
Buckley has always been good but she reaches a new level here. Her staggering performance is gut-wrenching, raw and almost primal in places. She really puts herself through the wringer and it feels like her performance came from the depths of her soul. Mescal has a less showier part by comparison, since Shakespeare compartmentalises his grief and is often away in London working on Hamlet, but he is still deeply moving too.
I was also stunned by Jupe’s performance. Children can sometimes overegg the emotion (heck, even Buckley does that in a couple of places) but he strikes the right balance. Plus, it’s a savvy piece of casting, hiring his older brother Noah Jupe to play Hamlet in the first staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The film lost its grip on me during the staging section, but Buckley’s reaction as an audience member held it together.
The film, directed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, who adapted the novel with O’Farrell, is gorgeous all around, from Łukasz Żal‘s cinematography to the period costumes and production design and the woodland set where Agnes likes to spend her time. I thought it might be too long, slow and depressing for me but I was gripped throughout and felt a lump in my throat and tears rolling down my face.
Expect Hamnet to do big business at the next Oscars, especially with Buckley and her mind-blowing performance.
Showing at the London Film Festival. In cinemas January 2026