Hamnet Movie Review

The Oscars are here. As of recording and hopefully getting this video out in a timely matter, the Academy Awards will be but mere hours away. And with it, a host of nominees will either get the crown or go crying home to mama as they do. And I will be covering those live on my channel, Adam Does Movies, so make sure to stick around in a few hours for that if you're watching this the day it posts. If not, it's going to be a little awkward, but you can still find the post And you know what else is nice? I like every single one of the movies that's up for the Academy Award this year. Films like F1 with Brad Pitt were some high-octane awesome car racing action with, yeah, a pretty generic barebones script, but sometimes a good dad movie is all I need. Then you have films like One Battle After Another, Controversial, some people say it was leftist propaganda, Antifa promo video, while others like me who actually watched the movie know that that was not at all what it was, and it treats both sides like complete dipshits. It's a fun, dark comedy. It's got a great pace, and I think it's worthy of the award, just like I think a few others are. Sinner is also up for Best Picture. That's my personal favorite and the one I think is going to win. However, there are still a bunch of contenders in the mix that I think could win, and I wouldn't be surprised or upset if they did. One such film I'm going to be talking about right now called Hamnet, not to be confused with Hamlet. Hamnet's based on a book that came out in 2020, which is a fictitious story about Shakespeare's early life, his children, and more specifically his beautiful wife, who is also nominated for Best Actress, and I think should probably win that too. The question I'm here to answer today, in my humblest of opinions, is Hamnet worthy of an Academy nominee, or is it just kind of a by-the-book film that you watch one time and forget it by tomorrow? Well, let's find out right now with a review of Hamnet. From creative visionary Chloe Zhao, who recently wrote and directed, checks notes, The Eternals, Marvel's The Eternals, comes Hamnet. Maybe that last one's not the best thing to compare her to, because I do think she's a damn good director, and to be fair, The Eternals at least looked really good. It just had a really stupid script, and you know, it's kind of part of that ugly stepchild of Marvel movies that came out in the last decade that haven't been the greatest. But let's set that aside and focus on Hamnet. This film is a period piece set in the late 1500s, which of course is going to track with when they believe Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in early 1600s, late 1500s. I know this because I looked it up, not because I have any sort of intellect or knowledge on the subject matter whatsoever, which is a good place to start, I suppose, with an understanding that you might be scared to go watch this movie because, oh, it's based on the Shakespearean play, it's probably going to be up its own ass, it's going to have a bunch of fancy words, maybe some rhymes, some sort of a sing-songy deal. No, none of that. There are fancy words, I suppose, but they're all ones that you should be able to digest. It's going to maybe be a couple steps above your typical Fast and the Furious script, but nothing that's insulting you in a way that says, hey, you're dumb, you shouldn't be watching this. The film's just a tidge over two hours at a runtime of two hours and five minutes, as all Academy Awards are required to be. Nothing can be a parsley 90 minutes. Are you out of your mind? These are cinematic experiences that should be bare mint two hours. Mint, short for minimum. And as I said in the open, we're going to be following not so much William Shakespeare, but that of his bride, Agnes. This isn't your traditional love story, although there's definitely love to be had as these two basically fall head over heels for each other as soon as they meet in the woods one fateful day. They come from two different walks of life. He, a middle-class family, a traditional glove maker father. His father was a glove maker, his father was a glove maker, and so forth. They're glove people. And she, a lady of the wood, her mother, amongst other things, known as a witch. She herself has witch-like qualities, if you're a simple peasant. In actuality, she's just very in tune with nature, one with the land. Prefers being outside touching grass than sitting down feet up on the table. Again, this is the late 1500s, folks. We have dinosaurs roaming the land. They don't know how to go to the bathroom yet. The dodo bird has not been extinct. Again, I know nothing about history or just general knowledge. Subscribe. What I do know is this. A film like Hamnet may run slow, but that does not mean it's boring. Quite the contrary. I found it to be incredibly engaging. Not only because the dialogue is very sharp, very sophisticated, I suppose you could say, without, again, making you feel like a complete simpleton. The acting is superb, not only from the adults, but from the three little pups they are going to sire down the road. As these two fall in love, they do get married, even if it's not necessarily at the behest of the mom and pa. And their three children are excellently acted. This really does feel like a family. And I'm going to do something I haven't done in maybe ever, certainly not in the last four or five years. I want to give a major shout out to the casting director on Hamnet. Knocked it out of the park. Especially with little boy Hamnet himself. What a lovely darling child. Incredibly likable. But all the kids are just lovely. And lovely is maybe too light of a word to use. In fact, what I would call this film is beautiful. I found the film to be incredibly captivating, quite touching. In fact, I was touching myself by the time it was done. And overall, just a wonderful experience to sit through. Not necessarily a joyful, happy one. Uh, no, that would be the opposite. This is a very tough film to watch at times. There's tragedy in this movie. But out of that tragedy comes beauty. It's a layered film. There's nuance there. You have complete characters that aren't one-dimensional strong female leads or perfect men. Well, we don't see those anymore. But you know, the stereotypical tropes are completely out the window. Because what we have here are two people drawn to each other. But they're very different individuals. William Shakespeare is born in the country, but he clearly needs to be in the city. Not only to keep his father's business going, he's a glover after all. But he has his passion, which is writing, which is creating. It's the arts. And that cannot be appreciated with, like, four neighbors within the course of a six-mile radius. While Jesse Buckley's character Agnes, who I just unfortunately recently saw in THE BRIDE! Awful, awful film. Here, though, she's brilliant. Her performance is a knockout. And this character, as I stated, really likes the countryside. She wants to be close to her brother. She wants her kids to experience the world like she did. And that comes at a fault. When her kids get sick, and she could have access to better medicines in the city, William Shakespeare, the opposite. He needs to be away from the family for long durations of time to get his dreams made into a reality. Meanwhile, he's got sick kids back home, and he's not by their side through thick and thin. It's that family dynamic, that balance, that can be just heartbreaking to watch. Because on one hand, he's trying to provide for them. But on the other hand, at what cost? And how much of it is for the family, as opposed to him just nurturing himself and his desires? And again, for her, she wants to have her cake and eat it, too. She likes that her husband is providing for the family, but she's also mad that he's gone. But even at their worst, at their lowest points, you can still see that affection for one another seep through, even if it's deep down. Much like THE ETERNALS, this is a very well-shot movie. I really appreciated the period piece type of stuff they had here. From the houses, the decrepit flooring, the tattered wallpaper, the outfits the kids wear. It's all very worn. It's all lived in. And you can feel that throughout the film, percolating in the walls, in the houses, in the people that you see on the streets. Their faces have a story to tell. And it's not one of gratitude. It's not one of great times. I don't recall what the trailers promote this film as, or what you think it's going to be going in. I'm just here to tell you, this is not about William Shakespeare, really, at all. He has plenty of screen time. Paul Maskell knocks it out of the park. But this is more the Agnes story. And for the most part, it's going to be through her perspective. I watched this film with my wife. She loved it even more than I did. She was in tears a couple times throughout. It really is one of those movies that stirs up emotions. Especially if you're a parent or you are married, I think there's going to be more layer to it for you, just because you've lived some of these experiences these folks have. Maybe not so much as a glover, or as a person living in the 1950s, but still, there's always going to be things that translate, even generations later. There's a powerful score in this film that makes everything feel even more alive, and really emphasizes some of the tragic parts of the flick. I don't want to give anything away. I mean, if you've read the book, you know, I suppose. But overall, to answer my question from earlier, is it worth being an Academy Award nominee? Abso-*******-lutely it is. And I would have no problems if it won the Oscar. This was an easy watch. It was such a great time. And I was just overall impressed by the production, the design, the acting. Again, the kids were just so good. Everything across the board was excellent. And while it is definitely more fun to ---- on a movie, I always go in hoping for the best. And it's been a rough couple months, for sure. But we are at the beginning, early months, and they always put the garbage at the beginning. I am hopeful we get some good stuff coming up the road. And again, out of the nominees I've seen, I was very happy with all of them. Very impressed. So, still great movies out there. A lot of people aren't watching them. But always after awards season, it seems like some attention is drawn and maybe people will go out and watch. But this one, Hamnet, it's an easy recommendation for me. Even if maybe you're not so much into the lovey-dovey stuff, there's plenty of other things going on in this film to get you by. Let me know if you saw it, though. Please, don't be a stranger. Sub to the show. Adam does movies. I post movie content almost every day. Sometimes I dive into TV shows. It's a great time. And again, I have a live stream in a few hours. We're going to be doing a watch-along of the Oscars. And seeing how well I did with my picks. Last year, I think I got eight of them right. It was absolutely unbelievable. Hopefully, I repeat history again. Alright, that's all I got. Hope to see you next time. Take care. Would you look at that? You made it to the end of the video. Congrats. Which means you might be looking for more content from me. Head over to patreon.com slash adamdoesmovies like these amazing supporters have. You can get access to over 350 exclusive videos. More importantly, you're helping this one man band keep his dreams a reality. Believe it or not, this takes a lot of work, and I already have a full-time job. So getting that support on Patreon helps way more than you can even imagine. So if you've ever liked my content in the past, and you wanted to show some thanks, that's the place to do it. Take care.