Director Report Card: Chloe Zhao (2025)

 

5. Hamnet

There was a period after Chloe Zhao's first films became indie darlings, when she first signed a deal to direct “Eternals,” that cinematic taste-makers worried they had lost their girl. “NomadLand” had not yet been declared overrated, ya see. If someone who came up doing low budget dramas shifts to making a mega-budget blockbuster, the unavoidable assumption is that this is mostly what they will be making afterwards. The flurry of projects Zhao was attached to after “Eternals” seemed to see this through. She was making a sci-fi western version of “Dracula” and maybe a “Star Wars.” The humble filmmaker of “The Rider” was no more or so it seemed. Then “Eternals” under-performed by Marvel Cinematic Universe standards, many viewers agreeing that Zhao was not suited to CGI bombast. Her next film to actually get made was “Hamnet.” As an adaptation of an acclaimed book about a very famous historical figure was not exactly on the same micro-budget level of “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” or “The Rider.” However, it was obviously a lot closer to Zhao's foundational work than her swing at superhero shenanigans. While I'm sure some will still insist that transitioning to Oscar-friendly period dramas still means Zhao has lost her way, the consensus seems to be that Zhao is back in her comfort zone. 

William Shakespeare and his wife – usually named in the historical records as Anne Hathaway but sometimes called Agnes – had three children. Only one was a son. The boy's name was Hamnet and he died at the tender age of 11. Some years afterwards, the Bard wrote a play whose title and main character share a name with his deceased child. This has resulted in much scholarly speculation about whether “The Tragedy of Hamlet” was inspired by his son's death or an expression of his grief. Little else is known about Hamnet's life or his death, what took his life remaining a mystery. This has not stopped authors from expanding on the possible connection. Maggie O'Farrel's novel and now Zhao's film adaptation invents most of their narrative around these historical events.

Agnes is centered in this story, the daughter of a rich lord and a woman rumored to be a witch. Before her death, Agnes' mother passed her knowledge of folk remedies onto her daughter. The son of a glove maker, to pay off his father's debt, takes a job teaching Agnes' step siblings Latin. The two soon catch each others' eye, their courtship beginning. William and Agnes soon wed. Shortly afterwards they are blessed with a daughter, Susanna. Not long after that, the twins Hamnet and Judith arrive. As William becomes a successful playwright, he splits time between his country home and the city. Agnes has uncanny visions of her youngest daughter's death. When the plague rips through the area, Judith becomes ill and it seems her predictions are coming true. Hamnet, who has promised his father to protect his sisters and mother, crawls into bed. The next day, Judith is alive and Hamnet is dead. William retreats into his work, returning to London to produce a new play. Agnes is left alone with her grief. When she learns the title of her husband's next play, she is uncertain how to react but goes to see the debut performance nevertheless.

William Shakespeare's body of work is, probably, the most analyzed and studied pieces of fiction in all of the English language. Over the hundreds of years his plays and sonnets have been part of the canon, they've been considered, imitated, adapted, and deconstructed from seemingly every angle imaginable. Shakespeare has always been with us, as far as anyone living is concerned. When one name has cast such a long shadow for such a long time, it becomes difficult to think of him as a human being. He is The Bard, not a man, and therefore his work stands apart from the details of his personal life. Of course, every writer puts themselves into their work and there's no reason to suspect this would have been untrue during the reign of Elizabeth I. “Hamnet” forces us to consider Shakespeare as a living person whose plays reflect what he was feeling and living through. It is a clever way to bring the words of “Hamlet,” so ingrained in our literary culture as to appear stodgy, back to life.

“Hamnet” establishes its thesis moment fairly early on. Early in William and Agnes' courtship, he meets her at her favorite spot in the surrounding woods. His attempts at starting a conversation devolve into awkward stammering. Instead, Agnes suggests he tells a story. Billy Shakespeare relates a rendition of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, charming the woman before him. The myth is one of otherworldly devotion and passion that resists godly orders. In other words, the writer is telling a story in order to express how he is feeling. It is a symptom of the creative mind, I'm afraid, that this is sometimes the best way for us to get a specific emotion across. If you know what “Hamnet” is about, and you probably do if you're watching it, you can tell how this set-up will come back around later in the film. 

The legend of Orpheus and Eurydice isn't only one of undying devotion but also of loss and the underworld. This conversation pointedly takes place near a large hole in the forest ground, a gaping black maw that might as well be the entrance to the underworld spoken of in the Greek myth. A parallel is drawn later on between this pit and the gap in the stage setting from which the ghost of Hamlet's father enters and exits. Around this same location, Agnes' pet hawk is also later found dead. It's an emotion floating all throughout “Hamnet,” that the physical reality of death is never far from us. We see it again when Agnes recalls seeing the body of her mother as a little girl or when Judith is bored unbreathing, only to take her first breathe shortly afterwards. “Hamnet” is not exactly a grim reminder of our mortality and the inevitability of death. It's a more sentimental film than that. However, it is concerned with something alive becoming an empty shell. There is a degree of earthy rot inevitably within this reflection on grief. 

Agnes is introduced next to that deep hole in the ground, curled up in the fetal position among a world of vibrant green vegetation. It is one she returns to throughout the film. Her mother was said to have emerged from the woods, like a fairy or nymph. She works with herbs and plants, whispering incantations to them as she crushes them against a stone. Her pet hawk does not seem receptive to any other trainers. William, meanwhile, is first seen in a class room. His natural environment seems to be crouched around a writing desk. His work takes him away from his family often. When Shakespeare does enter into the forested realm that seems to have birthed Agnes, his interactions are a bit awkward and stumbling. These two do love each other and find common ground but they ultimately inhabit different worlds. They are inevitably going to process grief in different ways because, no matter how much they love one another, they walk different lives. 

Zhao plays with the suggestion that Agnes Hathaway truly was attuned to some witchy energy. She claims to be able to tell people's futures from holding their hands. She has visions of uncertain origin. The twins also pull pranks, like dressing in each other's clothes to fool their dad, hinting that they have some otherworldly link as well. Both mother and son seem to have glimpses of the future, when Agnes says she can see Hamnet “up on the stage.” Whether we can take any of these suggestions literally is a matter of interpretation. Agnes herself seems to doubt the sincerity of her own beliefs at times. When Will stares at a shadow puppet show depicting the arrival of the plague in England, it feels like he too is trying to gleam something deeper from what's before him. This is, of course, true of all art. We are seeing mere projections, that we can choose to take meaning from. While “Hamnet' is unambiguous about what it thinks “Hamlet” is about, perhaps we can read this idea into the film itself. This is simply what O'Flannel and Zhao think is what happens.

I wish “Hamnet” trusted its audience a little more than it does. When the titular lad perishes, we are greeted to dreamy visions of him stepping into a door way, seemingly drawn in by a shadowy figure. The climax of the film has Agnes in the audience at a performance of “The Tragedy of Hamlet.” When her husband steps out on-stage, in the role of the prince's ghostly father, she points out that it's as if Shakespeare switched places with his boy. Was it necessary to announce that? In general, “Hamnet” has a bad habit of spelling things out too much. Key lines, like “The rest is silence” and “To be or not to be?,” are uttered before appearing in the play, in far too cute of a coincidence. Ultimately, the emotional connection Agnes feels with the material on-stage is touching but, the minute the credits roll, ring a little false. Yes, Hamnet will live forever on-stage. But I bet Agnes Hathaway would have rather watched her son grow up. 

“Hamnet” is at its best when depicting that grief as a raw, ugly thing. Jessie Buckley foregrounds Agnes' otherworldly quality, with intensely staring eyes and a puckish grin. However, when her emotions boil over, Buckley holds little back. During the birthing scene, she wails towards the heavens, face glistening with sweat, eyes wild with pain. When it appears she's lost her babies, the look of trembling panic is beautifully raw. Paul Mescal has moments like that too, when in a drunken stupor and finding himself unable to put the right words down. His tears come in their own way later on, just as ugly and real. However, the two actors notably never cry in a scene together, making the separation in how these two characters process their grief all too apparent. If that finale works at all, it's thank to the sadness and acceptance Buckley and Mescal are able to get across through their eyes and faces. 

Another way “Hamnet” grounds the legendary figures it concerns in more human matters is by reminding us that William Shakespeare was someone's son too. The Bard's relationship with his dad is shown as combative. His father belittles him for not taking up the family profession of being a glover and for pursuing an intellectual career. I think every line of dialogue the character has includes some insult towards his eldest son. Agnes' dad wasn't great either, as he married a condescending woman after his first wife's passing. It's a bit too on-the-nose but the moment, when William finally confronts his father, does prove fittingly cathartic. If nothing else, the subplot touches on something I've been thinking about a lot, now that I'm in my thirties. Few parents are ideal but, perhaps, every generation tries to be better than the one that came before it. It is indicative of “Hamnet's” maturity, that it nods towards this idea. 

“Hamnet” sees an interesting blend of Zhao's neo-realistic style from her earlier work with something more brooding and dream-like. When depicting Agnes howling in the sprawling wilderness, an apocalyptic dream, or the kids performing an impromptu enactment of the witches' spell from “MacBeth,” I get the impression that the director might have a pretty decent folk horror film in her. Łukasz Żal, the cinematographer of Pawel Pawlikowski's last two movies and “The Zone of Interest,” photographed this one. He often assumes a similar God's eye view as what he did in those films, creating a somewhat distant approach to the characters. Zhao smartly pairs these with somewhat square, almost formal looking sets. The impression it gives is of a stage play, the characters performing before a backdrop. Another decently clever way to link together the various themes apparent in the film.

“Hamnet” is more polished than Zhao's previous dramas. I would say it is not even as grounded in its imagery and ambiance as “NomadLand” was. Perhaps that is inevitable, when discussing the leap from modern-set films about homelessness to a historical biography set in the 17th century. The performances are strong, the visuals are sharp, the score is solid. The script mostly makes the right decisions, at least in the ambitious themes it presents. Ultimately, like many films of this sort, it feels the need to be too tidy and cute in the way it wraps things up or links the creation of a work to the work itself. Nevertheless, it is evident that the flaws of “Eternals” was not because Zhao was a one-trick pony but likelier out of difficulty of fitting her quirks into the Marvel house style. “Hamnet” shows that she still has plenty of skills at her disposal, being a well made and occasionally powerful film. [Grade: B]