Hamnet - The scoop and digest

Chloé Zhao directs and co-writes screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, whose novel film is based on.

Jessie Buckley - Agnes Shakespeare

Paul Mescal - William Shakespeare

Emily Watson - Mary Shakespeare

Jacobi Jupe - Hamnet Shakespeare

Noah Jupe - Hamlet

El Simons - Ophelia

Summary

Hamnet and Hamlet are in fact the same name, interchangeable in Stratford records in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

- The Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet

Latin tutor William Shakespeare meets Agnes (Anne Hathaway), said to be the daughter of a forest witch, and impresses her with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Amidst family politics, Agnes bears three children: Susanna, Hamnet and Judith.

When Hamnet tragically dies aged only eleven, grief inspires William to write Hamlet.

Totus mundus agit histrionem

So this is the primary source, right?

But I'm led to believe that play and/or hero stemmed from the Nordic legend of Amleth, which is an anagram of Hamlet.

For some reason, Robert Eggers' 2022 action epic The Northman might be relevant.

Anyway, this didn't live up to obscene hype and universal acclaim.

Sure it's well constructed and Jessie Buckley in particular is superb, but I found the whole thing quite boring.

Climax is designed to make audience break down in floods of tears, but cheat code didn't have that effect on me, especially since they settled on Max Richter's On the Nature of Daylight.

How original.

Tacky yes, but All of Us Strangers using Frankie Goes To Hollywood's The Power of Love was more effective, which also starred Mescal.