Hamnet

A quiet introspection into the tug of connected hearts, through finding one another, championing one another, creating together, contemplating distance and the weight of its persistent shears, losing co-owned creation, contemplating time and the weight of its persistent mirror, and finally through reconnecting after loss. The eyes of Agnes Shakespeare — true to accounts later unfettered and unhindered by the lens of patriarchy — inform her heart's resilience, refusal to let die, and its absolute acceptance of forms of greatness scorned upon by narrow-minded hearts and myopic eyes about. The eyes of William Shakespeare — poet cursed by expression through crafted words in the prison of his esoterism — inform his heart's resignation to openness, to empathy, to wonder, and its absolute acceptance of forms of greatness scorned upon by narrow-minded hearts and myopic eyes about. Chloe Zhao presents a tale that doesn't force its significance, but carries significance in the veins of every micro-expression Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal produces. Chloe presents a tale that doesn't tell you that it's familiar, but allows you to meld with Agnes and Will's battle's with acceptance, with Agnes' battles with childbirth, with Hamnet and Judith's deeper-than-skin connection, with Agnes' way of dealing with the death of Hamnet, with Will's way of dealing with the death of Hamnet, with the humanized philosophical questions posed through the grieving for Hamnet, and finally, with the spiritual catharsis both parents find through the play, Hamlet. The way this movie carries motifs and visuals drawn from nearly all of Shakespeare's plays, woven intricately and organically into the story, with clear raisons d'être, was divine! Half of the time, you don't understand Shakespeare (the plays, not the person), but you feel it, him, in his plays, and that last play in this movie...the performance from the older Jupe brother, was all you needed to feel to get why Shakespeare is as revered as he is. The small town, semi-educated, poor boy from Stratford-upon-Avon, and his magical, elucidating, entrancing, and tragic love tug with Agnes Shakespeare, née Hathaway.