Should we start worrying about Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet”? I hear the test screening, which occurred last night, did not go well. It’s being described to me as misery porn. There’s not much of a purpose and direction in this film, according an handful of attendees.
Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star, and they are obviously competent actors, but Zhao’s direction in this one, not to mention her screenwriting, is said to be very flat, and the tone completely off. It’s described as two hours of Buckley looking miserable on screen — but there’s much depth or layer to her mourning.
Set against the backdrop of Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet, and during the Black Plague in 1580s England, “Hamnet” imagines the story of Agnes, the wife of Shakespeare, as she grapples with the grief that will soon come in losing her child to the plague. The name William Shakespeare is only spoken of once in the movie, near the end.
The film also explores the connection between the death of Hamnet and the creation of Shakespeare's famous play Hamlet. In the novel he’s only referred to as the “Latin Tutor.” He’s absent during Hamnet's final days, and this creates emotional distance between him and his wife. Agnes is consumed by her sorrow, feeling betrayed by his absence.
An attendee tells me that “Hamnet” has “the most extreme closeups I’ve ever seen in a movie,” and that because of this creative decision, they now know “every freckle” in Buckley’s face.
The little boy who plays Hamnet is said to be a major case of miscasting. Next worst — Joe Alwyn. Many of the scenes are static shots from above — cameras on the ceiling, cameras in the forest canopy. The scenes with Buckley alone in the forest being a “forest witch” are by far the best in the movie.
In August, Focus acquired U.S. rights to Zhao’s “Hamnet.” Zhao actually replaced original director Sam Mendes, who is now in the middle of hard prep to shoot four Beatles films. “Hamnet” is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell prize-winning Novel in what sounds like primo Oscar-bait. Lukasz Zal (“The Zone of Interest”) is cinematographer on this one.
Zhao, who made waves with her 2017 indie “The Rider,” is coming off the MCU debacle “Eternals,” before that one she had won Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars for “Nomadland.”