Hamnet

9 “What do you see?” Hamnet is a powerful and beautiful tale of love, loss, and art.  It’s a tender beginning, heartfelt and beautiful. The love feels poetic, the connection real. The expressions, the tones, the dialogue, they all carry an endearing warmth that paint a landscape of vulnerability and affection.  The emotion pushes the movie through, when the film wants to be heavy it takes you there, it brings you to the pain, the loss, and it shatters you. It’s a powerful sort of loud that isn’t emotionally manipulative, but a volume that uncovers your weakness, and tests your emotional resolve. The heavy elements and expressions of powerful emotion are carried through by a powerhouse performance from Jessie Buckley and a brilliant score.  The final scene is a beautiful expression of art, and a display of its ability to connect people. Through the play Agnes can settle her grief, and sense her son’s soul through the stage. Art isn’t just entertainment, it’s an outlet, it’s a unifier. You can’t understand every word, but you understand every bit of emotion flooding the screen. You feel the palpability and near fragility of the play. How every audience member can feel it, and how Agnes can reach out, and feel her son’s hand, see her son’s eyes. This is the best scene of the year.  Hamnet is the most emotionally powerful movie of the year, and a celebration of art’s power to unify grief.