The movie Hamnet tells the story of Anne Hathaway as her husband, William Shakespeare, writes and produces one of the best stories ever told.
The story is one of a Danish prince that you may or may not have pretended to read in high school. While I will not use this review to make the argument that the movie somehow justifies your twelfth grade English teacher's zeal in making you read a work of literature so densely profound and tragic at too-ripe an age--of course, if you haven't, then you should read it, eventually--I will try to pull back the curtain just a little to show you why the film might be worth your time.
The life of Shakespeare--the father, husband, son-of-a-glovemaker, actor, schoolmaster, playwright--may well be mired in mystery, and yet Chloé Zhao’s film, based on the eponymous novel and co-written by its author, Maggie O'Farrell, felt neither over-ambitious or lacking in detail. They will lead you to the gates of the underworld as they tell the story of the young lovers' tragic loss. And you will stare back at these lovers, with them, as though you had been talking to ghosts.
The film and everything in it -- it's score, costumes, set design, and talent -- are captivating from beginning to end. Keep an eye out for the supporting actor, Jacobi Jupe [1] (playing the titular character), whom I'm sure we have yet to see the last of. The boy is much more deserving of the nomination than Sean Penn.
and his brother, for that matter, Noah, whom the film also features. ↩