Hamnet

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/hamnet-review/

"Hamnet is a true work of art that, despite its slow march and some more challenging moments for the uninitiated, rewards perseverance.

It's a film about how pain destroys, but also about the miracle of how art can serve as a vessel for redemption or, at least, for understanding. Chloé Zhao took an empty space in history the life of a forgotten woman and the silence of a lost son and filled it with an emotion that's, ultimately, a testament to the power of creation.

It's proof that the greatest tragedy in literature was, in fact, born from the greatest possible act of family love and memory."

Rating: A-

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, though theres some disagreement about whether he actually wrote the materials attributed to him. Even sketchier than this are some of the details about his personal life, aspects of his character that have been the subject of much conjecture, especially where they may have influenced his literary undertakings. And an examination of that nexus is where this latest offering from writer-director Chloé Zhao makes its appearance on the stage (or, in this case, the screen). Based on the best-selling speculative novel Hamnet by Maggie OFarrell (who co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao), the film presents a fictional take on how the Bards most noteworthy work, the q...

Maggie OFarrell said at this screening that adapting her novel for the screen was akin to watching the sand flow through an hour glass. She started with something extensive, whittled it down to 90-odd pages and then gave it to a director (Chloé Zhao) who frilled it all out again to make a couple of hours for the screen that is somewhat different from the original. I reckon thats the perfect way to describe just how this story of a part of Shakespeare's life comes across, and at last - I have seen something from Paul Mescal that isnt just hype. He is the bard, before he was the bard. He taught Latin to uninterested children so he could pay of his fathers debt, and was bored. Then he encounters Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and its love at first sig...