Hamnet
November 18th, 2025
MOVIE: HAMNET
STARRING: JESSIE BUCKLEY, PAUL MESCAL, EMILY WATSON, JOE ALWYN
DIRECTED BY: CHLOÉ ZHAO
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 125 MINUTES
The opening shot of Hamnet begins high in the canopy of two towering trees, the camera gliding downward to reveal their intertwined roots. Beneath them is the film’s central figure, Agnes (Jessie Buckley). She is the mother of this tale, the creator, the root from which the story grows. Directed by Chloé Zhao with precision, passion, and power, Hamnet unfolds as a stirring portrait of William Shakespeare’s wife and family, as well as the devastating inspiration behind Hamlet. Raw with emotion and rich in its ode to nature, love, and loss, it stands as one of the most affecting films of 2025.
The lovers’ first meeting unfolds in the quiet countryside. Agnes tends to her hawk, grounded in the natural world she trusts and distanced from those who judge her. William (Paul Mescal), teaching Latin to younger children as repayment for his father’s debts, encounters her in the stable. Their connection is immediate, though Agnes retreats, wary of intimacy. It is not until William recounts the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the peril of beauty too powerful to look away from, that she begins to let him in.
The film then follows the growth of their family. Agnes practices holistic healing, drawing from the earth, while William struggles with his writing. To nurture his art, he must leave for London, a place where a playwright can thrive, while Agnes remains home with their three children: Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), Judith (Olivia Lynes), and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Their love is strong, but distance strains it. The story reveals the eternal conflict between devotion and creation, the need to make art, the need to be inspired, and the ways love is tested by profound loss.
From the outset, Zhao commands the narrative as both writer and director. Adapting Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, she composes scenes awash in crimson and deep forest green. Hamnet becomes a lived-in world, a space in which its exceptional cast can inhabit joy, sorrow, and pain with startling authenticity.
At its core, Hamnet is a story of loss, the fierce, unshakeable love between a parent, their child, and how art can emerge from great devastation. Buckley delivers a towering performance, disappearing wholly into Agnes with an often rare and consuming commitment, which is on par with the likes of Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence, Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive, or Charlize Theron in Monster. Mescal, the young actors, and Emily Watson- who plays a vigilant mother-in-law who senses the storm ahead- are all equally compelling.
Hamnet is groundbreaking cinema. It serves as an origin story, not just of William Shakespeare, but of the women whose sacrifices shaped his legacy. It reminds us that grief takes many forms and that love endures, even when fractured by tragedy. Zhao has crafted a love story destined to last.
HAMNET IS PLAYING IN THEATERS ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 2025.
4 STARS
Written by: Leo Brady
