On paper, Hamnet sounds like the most Oscary film ever: a visionary genius, William Shakespeare, played by Paul Mescal, whose magnetism captivates all demographics. Yet the film sidelines both Shakespeare and Mescal to supporting roles. Instead, it centres on Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway—long dismissed as a dumpy, illiterate woman—here called Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley.
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Hamnet takes imaginative flight from sparse historical facts. In 1582, an 18-year-old Shakespeare married the pregnant 26-year-old Anne Hathaway in a shotgun wedding; in 1596, their 11-year-old son Hamnet died, likely from plague. O’Farrell co-wrote the screenplay with director Chloé Zhao, creating a film with a tremendous female gaze. Agnes is portrayed as a gifted herbalist and falconer—fierce, intelligent, and a match for the Latin tutor.
Jessie Buckley is a dead cert for best actress; her raw howl of grief after her son’s death is an astonishing moment. The film has faced a mini-backlash, criticised as emotional manipulative grief porn, but the author argues it reveals the inner lives of all the Annes and Agneses—women whose anguish has been silenced. Despite accusations of lacking historical fact, the film counters centuries of misogynistic vilification.
Hamnet gives voice to disenfranchised women, with standout performances from Buckley, Emily Watson as Shakespeare’s stern mother, and Joe Alwyn as Agnes’s supportive brother. Paul Mescal also delivers. This feminist fest, directed by a woman and led by a female star, deserves the best picture Oscar for its shattering portrayal of a mother’s grief and a wife’s hidden story.
