Grief is a powerful motivator. It can destroy, but can also inspire. In the trailer for Chloé Zhao‘s Hamnet, Paul Mescal (Gladiator II, Aftersun) and Jessie Buckley (Men, The Bride) play young William Shakespeare and Agnes, respectively, navigating the loss of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet.
Today’s Hamnet trailer tugs at heartstrings while depicting a fated love doomed by grim events. The promo showcases Zhao’s grand directorial efforts alongside powerful performances, stunning backdrops, and a sweeping score. The untold love story between William and Agnes packs an emotional punch as the couple comes to grips with the cruelty of death and the stories we tell to honor those who have passed too soon.
Hamnet is a fictional novel depicting the life and times of Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare. The story takes audiences through a tumultuous tale of shattered realities, loss, and heart-wrenching inspiration behind Shakespeare’s world-famous Hamlet.
Per Amazon, the official description for O’Farrell’s Hamnet reads:
England, 1580. A young Latin tutor—penniless, bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an eccentric young woman: a wild creature who walks her family’s estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles on Henley Street in Stratford, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in her young husband’s life. His gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when their beloved twins, Hamnet and Judith, are afflicted with the bubonic plague, and, devastatingly, one of them succumbs to the illness.
A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing and seductive, an impossible-to-put-down novel from one of our most gifted writers.
Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn also star in Hamnet, which has its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Zhao directs Hamnet from a script she co-wrote with Maggie O’Farrell, based on O’Farrell’s novel. Focus Features will release Hamnet from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment in select theaters on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, before taking it wide on December 12.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed