A countless number of artists and thinkers have spent an innumerable amount of time considering the origins and impact of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Some of those contemplations are serious and scholarly and some are, well, less so. (The musical Something Rotten, for example, attributes the whole thing to a faulty prophecy about an omelette.) Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, based on Maggie O’Farrell 2020 novel of the same name, takes a more intimate tack. In the upcoming film, it’s a personal tragedy that births one of the bard’s greatest.
In the trailer for Hamnet, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley play William and Agnes (another name for Anne) Shakespeare as a relatively normal couple struggling to cope with the death of their young son, Hamnet. In real life, Hamnet died in 1596 at the age of 11. It was a loss some scholars believe contributed to the creation—or at least the emotionality—of Hamlet. Hamnet leans fully into this theory as we watch the bard both grieve and attempt to immortalize his child.
The film will also follow “the untold love story that inspired Shakespeare’s greatest masterpiece,” according to its logline. Some of that love is obviously shared between Shakespeare and his son, but the film will also focus on Agnes, a figure we don’t hear about nearly as much as her husband. In the trailer, Agnes is the one to ask her husband for a story, one that “moves” him. It’s unclear if this is the particular story that ends up transforming into the storied play, but regardless, it’s apparent that, at least in Zhao’s telling, Shakespeare’s wife was integral to his legacy.
Hamnet‘s original writer had a major impact on this film as well; O’Farrell co-wrote the screenplay with the Nomadland director. The film, which also stars Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn, will premiere at TIFF this fall before opening in select theaters November 27th and theaters nationwide December 12. You may just want to bring a couple tissues with you when you go.
