Hamnet

“To be or not to be” The scream of despair and pain over Hamnet’s death by Jessie Buckley deserves the Oscar. Trying to describe this film at times makes me fall more and more in love with cinema, and with how a work of this caliber can draw me closer and closer to it. The film starts slowly, helping you understand who the characters are and grow attached to them, and even to those who will appear later (like Hamnet and Judith). I loved this film so much, especially for the theme it explores: parental love particularly a mother’s love for her children turning it into a classic, deeply emotional work. There were two scenes that deeply struck me: The first is when Hamnet tries to save Judith from the plague. In a way, he “succeeds,” but as it is said in the film, he “managed to trick death.” His sister recovers, yet the illness strikes him instead and ultimately kills him. This scene symbolizes brotherly love and how much a sibling is willing to sacrifice for the other’s well-being. The second is Agnes’s scream of despair after Hamnet’s death. This scene conveys all the pain felt by a mother, making us step into her shoes and feel her suffering, leaving us powerless. Then the final scene is pure cinematic art twenty minutes of pure visual ecstasy and anguish. The cinematography, the editing, the production design, the writing EVERYTHING is perfect. I noticed many details that made me love it even more than I expected: First, the crowd and the theater. I believe Chloé Zhao wanted to show us the mother’s emotional and mental state. The crowd symbolizes her emotional state chaotic, overwhelming, suffocating everything caused by her son’s death. The theater, on the other hand, represents her mental state: she has always carried her son in her mind (as reflected in the tragedy being performed), even months after his death. The colors used in the scene reinforce this meaning even more: Agnes is dressed in faded red, surrounded by a crowd mostly dressed in white and brown. This symbolizes how deeply pained and different she feels among them. She did not go there to watch a tragedy she went to see a memory, nostalgia, and love. And then the scene of all the hands reaching toward each other is pure art. The Soundtrack makes the scene even more memorable and moving. I’m grateful that my passion for cinema is growing more and more. One of—if not the best films I have seen in the past year. Will manages to make the loss “disappear” and be accepted, redeeming himself for having been too absent in Agnes’s life.