Hamnet (2025)

Living in a small town, I haven't been able to see new films when they are released since the local theatre gets them VERY slowly... 

So here I am in February writing about Hamnet. I avoided all my usual podcasts so I could go in with no preconceived notions.

The first half nearly put me to sleep. If it weren't for Jesse Buckley, the forest witch storyline, and Max Richter, I would have. I sat there wondering how much longer I had to endure. 

Then the second half started, and I couldn't even blink for fear of missing the next word. And then the last 25 minutes absolutely broke me... the gratuitous use of "On the Nature of Daylight" included. (Why couldn't Richter have written a new piece of music??). 

The dichotomy of the acts in this film is truly perplexing. Why did we need to see the tree so many times? The "cave" would've been much more powerful at the end with the doorway if they didn't shove it down our throats five times. 

I've heard the interviews from the creatives of this film extolling the "high art" of this film and how inaccessible it is... and there is no faster way to get people to not see your film than doing this. Grief and art don't need to be gaudy or elaborate... if done well, the emotionality of the story tells itself. 

With that said, I hope this doesn't win any awards from films that, as a whole, are better than Hamnet.

But the technical aspects of this film deserve a shoutout:

The cinematography is stunning.

The editing is seamless.

The production design is sumptuous.

The music is somber.

The acting is stellar.