Movie: Hamnet
Running Time: 2:05
Nominated for: Best Picture, Director, Leading Actress, Casting, Costumes, Original Score, Production Design, Adapted Screenplay
How I watched: AMC
When it had me: Shakespeare
When it lost me: The Title, almost?
What systems does it challenge: I'm not sure this one fits in that mold?
I don't know why the title of this film annoys me so much. It's from the book of the same name, by Maggie O'Farrell and immediately the movie explains that this name is interchangeable with Hamlet. So why interchange them? I don't know; I just had to get over it.
The film imagines the behind the scene story of why Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. I want to ask why we need to make guesses about this but the movie is too good for me to worry about it.
First, let's talk about witchcraft! In this imagining, William unapologetically marries a witch of the wood. She communes with the forest, has ancestral knowledge of herbs, healing and spell-casting. She is prophetic and feral and powerful. Jesse Buckley really deeply embodies this role and delivers something above and beyond. I can't imagine her not winning.
Paul Mescal is equally incredible as the bard himself. As a self-professed Shakespeare nerd, I wanted to spend a little more time with this character and the words of Hamlet, my very favorite play ever. It took some time to get there but when we did, it was so worthwhile.
Ultimately, the movie is an exploration about grief and what we do with it. As a viewer, I sat a long time in some very uncomfortable emotional landscapes but it never felt cheap. The acting was too damn good. It always felt truthful rather than manipulative.
This was a beautiful, troubling, and ultimately hopeful space to inhabit for a couple of hours. It made me feel like there is truly magic in nature, love and creativity and through those practices we can not only survive but thrive.
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