Hamnet (2025)

Plot of Hamnet: It Is 1599 (I think). Will Shakespeare is a tutor teaching some children of a man to whom his father is in debit, when he sees a young woman with a hawk through the window. He abandons the students and goes outside to meet the woman, Agnes, and later they romance, she becomes pregnant and they marry against the wishes of various relatives. Over time, Agnes has more children. Will becomes a playwright and spends a lot of time in London. In Stratford there is plague and Hamnet, the oldest boy dies of it and Agnes holds the fact that Will is away at work against him and they become estranged. However, later when his play, Hamlet, is advertised she joins the population who fill the Globe Theatre and in the presentation of the play sees her husband’s grief at the loss of their son and so they are reconciled.

Content: There is a bit of sex with no nudity, one if those uncomfortable couplings apparently in desperation. No drinking drugs or smoking. Initial scenes out in the wood, Agnes with a hawk. Then lots of scenes of Stratford interiors looking like Dutch masters, people sit round tables in the gloom, sometimes with a bowl of fruit in front of them. Then scenes in the children’s attic bedroom, with two mattresses and then one and so on. Will seen writing once or  twice and then rehearsing the play. Then Hamlet is presented at the Globe. Everybody likes it.

A View: Well – it seems that everybody really liked this film, except for people I have come across here in Spain. I am naturally biased against films which show children in difficulties, so was unenthusiastic about seeing it, except for the fact that it was an Oscar winner. But in addition to this it seemed to be made up of scenes which could have been paintings. Indeed the opening scene of Agnes curled up in a tree root is likened to ‘Flaming June’ by the Pre-Raphaelite Sir Frederic Leighton; I thought it looked more like an Arthur Rackham illustration. I did not like it, but don’t take any notice of me. Nearly everyone loves it.

Fun Fact: Jessie Buckley won Best Actress at the 2026 Oscars.