Hamnet review – Jessie Buckley deserves an Oscar, shame it’s for this snoozefest | Films | Entertainment
Twenty minutes in and two people have already walked out of my local cinema on opening day. A surprise start to the hotly-tipped awards-season darling, Hamnet, that’s been showered in five star reviews since its London Film Festival debut last autumn. Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes are producers on this, for goodness’ sake. Although I couldn’t help guessing why those audience members left. It’s very slow. Slow enough to make your eyelids glaze over. In fact, I have to nudge my companion several times due to their light but noticeable snoring. A far cry from all the hype surrounding this big screen adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes Hathaway’s (Jessie Buckley) grief over their son Hamnet and how his tragic death inspired the bard’s great play, Hamlet. It’s heavy stuff. And in no way am I dismissive of the subject matter. No doubt, the film will be particularly powerful for parents who have suffered the grave loss of a child. But the movie has already been accused of manipulating the audience. Maybe. The one thing it can certainly be accused of – and this is quite the feat considering the subject matter – is being boring.
Sure, Hamnet is beautifully filmed, with accurate lighting in Tudor housing, as Buckley gives what many (me included) believe to be a heart-wrenching performance that will win her the Best Actress Oscar. So far so very writer-director Chloé Zhao. But as with her lacklustre Marvel misfire Eternals, it’s all too strung out and self-indulgent. Scene after scene, we watch the Shakespeares at home, living life with not very much happening over two hours of screen time. To be fair, Prince George lookalike Jacobi Jupe is impressive as their dying son, as is his real-life brother Noah Jupe, who portrays Hamlet on stage at the end. But it’s all just so drawn out and self-important, nodding at the audience that, “Yes, this will be an Oscar-winning film, you’d better believe it.”
By the time the credits roll, my companion and I are somewhat exhausted, as are another couple, who, on the way out, express their mutual disappointment and boredom. The film industry luvvies may gush over Oscar-bait like this, but the rest of us would rather re-watch the wonderfully unpretentious (and deservedly Oscar-winning) Shakespeare in Love than this attempt at Shakespeare in Grief again.
Hamnet is out now in cinemas.
