Vague Visages’ Hamnet review contains minor spoilers. Chloé Zhao’s 2025 movie features Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Joe Alwyn. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

I haven’t been affected by a tragedy like the loss of a child, so it isn’t for me to say that moviegoers will also be emotionally unmoved by Chloé Zhao’s 2025 film Hamnet. Still, it’s important to recalibrate expectations after several weeks of rapturous reviews, as the 125-minute historical drama isn’t overwhelmingly weepy, but rather something far more intimate, with the most affecting moments invoked at a register barely above a whisper. Hamnet is all the richer when Zhao takes this approach, but the director’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel — co-written with the author herself — frequently stumbles away from a keenly observed family drama into the most cliched biopic tropes, which robs the characters of their authenticity and reminds viewers of the inherent artifice that comes with dramatizing the lives of historical figures, especially ones for which there are little facts on official record.

William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) isn’t named directly in Hamnet, though the credits identify the character as “Will.” Zhao reveals that he’s a playwright who spends a significant amount of time in London, but his work doesn’t come into focus until the now-famous Hamlet is unveiled to the world for the first time during the film’s second half. The director primarily sets her story in Stratford-upon-Avon with Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley) experiencing the couple’s meet-cute and the evolution of their relationship as they have three children together. Historical records of the protagonists’ courtship from this period are thin on the ground, but O’Farrell and Zhao never let this stretch feel like the fan fiction a lesser movie would. Instead, Mescal’s character is introduced as a humble Latin tutor who falls for a girl likened to a witch by many in their small town, one who get married against the wishes of their parents after Agnes falls pregnant out of wedlock. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal contrasts the humdrum nature of the protagonists’ lives with sharp colors from the flora and fauna surrounding their village, while Max Richter’s enchanting but ill-fitting score sounds like it’s been lifted from a Ridley Scott historical action epic. All of this oversells a slice-of-life drama which is affecting because of its anti-dramatic tone. The family bonding in happier times is more moving than what comes when a loved one meets a sudden end.

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After Agnes and Will’s daughter Judith (Olivia Lynes) gets sick, her twin brother Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) crawls into bed next to her and prays that his sibling’s life-threatening illness will be transferred to him. This wish is granted, and the boy passes away by the morning. As overbearing as this magically realist turn sounds written down, it’s quietly affecting despite its high concept. Hamnet subsequently moves into a soft register when all signs suggest it should take a turn towards melodrama. Unfortunately, the journey from the tragedy to the creation of Hamlet doesn’t share the same dramatic instincts, and the screenplay feels all too neat in attempting to draw parallels between a real life known only through speculation and a work of art even the worst-read person knows through cultural osmosis.

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This is the problem with Hamnet in a nutshell: as soon as one suspends disbelief and allows the protagonists’ personal lives to feel honest, it becomes clear that these are famous historical figures whose mythology has been tampered with for the screen. It’s hard to remain invested in the truth of Zhao’s drama when Mescal’s Will tearfully coins the most famous monologue in history. First and foremost, the moment feels designed as an Oscar clip. An adapted work of historical fiction, as opposed to a highly researched dive into the subjects’ lives, allows for some dramatic license, but the artificiality feels especially pronounced considering the subject matter. For a film which tackles the cathartic nature of art and how fiction can help us heal after a tragedy, the personal touches of Hamnet feel hollow whenever Zhao tries to conform to Shakespeare’s pop culture image.

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Zhao broke out in the film industry through movies about America’s forgotten communities. In her Oscar-winning third feature, Nomadland (2020), she attempts to bridge the gap between docudrama and straightforward fiction through the casting of a major star (Frances McDormand as Fern). I’m not a fan of the film, as its rose-tinted view of working in an Amazon warehouse feels like a corporate advertisement, and in a way that sacrifices the rest of the drama’s integrity. But Nomadland was the last time Zhao allowed herself to follow her most recurrent obsessions as a storyteller. After an ill-fated foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe via Eternals (2021), the Chinese-born director partially returned to her comfort zone with Hamnet, but she’s most effective as a filmmaker when bringing to life naturalistic dynamics. Cinematic exposition never sits more awkwardly than it does when placed next to earnest material which dares audiences to see characters as real people instead of icons ripped from history textbooks. Whenever Zhao veers from a humanist drama into traditional biopic territory, I’m perplexed by anybody finding emotional reverence beneath the wealth of cliches, no matter how strong the central performances might be.

Alistair Ryder (@YesitsAlistair) is a film and TV critic based in Manchester, England. By day, he interviews the great and the good of the film world for Zavvi, and by night, he criticizes their work as a regular reviewer at outlets including The Film Stage and Looper. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film reviews at Vague Visages.

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