Remember when Roland Emmerich made a movie about the long-debunked “authorship question,” in which a bunch of people way too smart for their own good suddenly doubted that a poor person like William Shakespeare could have authored his plays? Well, we’re not suggesting that Hamnet, the new movie by Chloe Zhao, is anything like that — we just remembered that and still think that shit’s hilarious. Anyway, you know the drill: Zhao won a Best Picture Oscar, did Marvel bidness badly, and is now back to Serious Filmmaking with serious actors like Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley.
This adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel (about Shakespeare’s wife, the death of their son, and the creative fire it lit in her husband) will premiere next week at TIFF, and in advance of that, Focus Features dropped a teaser trailer for the feature. Will we bear the slings and arrows of outrageous Canadian fortune in order to see this while we’re there? Only time will tell.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis for Hamnet from this year’s TIFF program:
“In William Shakespeare’s day, the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable. The newest film by Chloé Zhao, director of TIFF ’20 People’s Choice Award winner ‘Nomadland,’ also an Oscar winner, uses that context as the basis for a tender exploration of Shakespeare’s domestic life, connecting a family tragedy to one of his most famous works. Maybe we can better understand Hamlet, Zhao suggests, if we consider that it was developed while the most famous writer in the Western canon was mourning the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet.
Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet’s main character isn’t The Bard — played here by an impressive Paul Mescal — or even the child who gives the film its name. Hamnet belongs to Agnes, Shakespeare’s thoughtful wife, played by an enthralling Jessie Buckley, who bathes the film in her warmth.
Many historical accounts preface reports of Hamnet’s death with statistics about how common child mortality was in the 16th century, as though it barely made an impact. Hamnet rejects that premise, presenting Shakespeare not as a distant, untouchable genius but as a real man whose literary prowess was irrevocably impacted by his domestic life.
Grief is a theme here, but Hamnet is not just a film about death. Early scenes of Agnes and William’s courtship are naturalistic, rendered through lush cinematography by 2023 TIFF Variety Artisan Award winner Łukasz Żal (‘Cold War,’ TIFF ’18; ‘The Zone of Interest,’ ‘IFF ’23). Like any family story, this one contains joy alongside sorrow.”
Hamnet hits select theaters on November 27 before expanding nationwide on December 12. If Kate Bush were to do an original song for any upcoming release, this would be it.