You’re all being weird about ‘Hamnet’
Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet has been making audience sob for the last few weeks. But the more we talk about it, the weirder people get. Basically, people can’t just “dislike” it. They have to make it a whole “thing” instead.
Hamnet is based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell and tells the fictional history of Agnes and her life with William Shakespeare. Jessie Buckley plays Agnes (or Anne Hathaway) in the 2025 film with Paul Mescal taking on Shakespeare. And it details the short life of Agnes and Shakespeare’s young son, Hamnet (played by Jacobi Jupe).
The story I was told as a young theatre lover is that Hamlet was not directly inspired by the death of Hamnet but is still part of Shakespeare’s process. That is a historical bit of information that is taught to students, like me, in theatre history courses. So tell me why so many cannot understand, going into Hamnet, that the play and the story of Hamnet Shakespeare are connected but not the same thing?
I have seen multiple responses to Hamnet that all equate to some complaint about Hamlet. One (which I won’t link to) went as far as to say that the movie wants you to ignore the plot of Hamlet for this film. People defending that take are calling it an “analysis” of Zhao’s film and let me make one thing clear: You can’t just use words like analysis to defend a fundamental misunderstanding.
Hamnet does not try to change what happens in Hamlet. The truth of the film is that it makes the assumption that Hamlet was written as a way for Shakespeare to unpack his grief over his son’s death. Agnes’ anger about this being about her “son” is rooted in her own grief and connection to the story.
Just admit you’re emotionless and move on
To start, I kid. I am not serious when I say that if you weren’t moved by Hamnet, you have no soul. That’s a joke. So before you ignore my entire point because I made a joke, let’s just clear that up. Now that you know it is okay if you don’t “get” the movie, let’s move on.
But the lack of emotional reaction from some critics of the film feels like their actual issue with it. You didn’t relate to the movie? Okay! Good for you. That’s not a knock on the film or you! That’s just a difference and that’s okay. But what we’re seeing is people acting as if their lack of attachment is the film’s fault.
It isn’t. Some movies aren’t for everyone. You don’t have to connect. That’s fine. But I think we live in a world where if a vast majority of people feel one way and you don’t, it then becomes a problem of the film in question instead of a moment of reflection. Don’t understand the ending? Why is that and what didn’t you like about it? Can you explain that without it dismissing someone else’s feelings about it?
We’re losing the art of being able to just allow others their love of a film and with something like Hamnet, that has deeply personal connections, it is getting weird.
(featured image: Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features)
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