Hamnet (2025) Review

Title: Hamnet
Year: 2025
Director: Chloe Zhao
Country: US
Language: English

I knew Chloe Zhao was a one-of-a-kind film-maker after I saw Nomadland at TIFF. I said to myself "this film will win Best Picture at the Oscars", I was probably the only person who declared so early on, and it turns out I was right. Eternals (2021) was a bit of a miss for most audiences, but I understood it as a means to get future funding for a passion project. Hamnet (2025) is clearly the passion project. It's a return to her auteur style of film-making. 

After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England. 

Clearly inspired by Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven), Hamnet is a very deliberately paced film that is as visually stunning as it is emotionally devastating. When Zhao's camera is not fixated on close-ups in search of intimate moments, it is panning around nature, shooting through forests and trees, sometimes looking up towards the heavens. The understated score, by Max Richter, quietly intensifies the drama unfolding around us. His instrumental On the Nature of Daylight is used with heartwrenching effect in the finale.

The acting by Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley is remarkable. They have undeniable chemistry & their range is essential to pulling off such a demanding performance. Buckley's role as a grieving mother is especially challenging, but she had me in the palm of her hand the entire film. If this film is guaranteed any awards, Buckley is going to win Best Actress. 

For me, Hamnet is not the clear "Best Picture" winner that Nomadland was; primarily because we have a few heavy hitters like One Battle After Another and Sinners to contend with. It also has to contend with viewers comparing it to Shakespeare in Love, which has aged badly, and many people view a mistake considering Saving Private Ryan was also in contention that year. Hamnet is a great film that I certainly intend to watch again.