Having read Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel at the tail end of last year (and being a big fan of anything Paul Mescal stars in), I was keen to go and see Hamnet as soon as I possibly could on the big screen. And, reader, I saw it. But no, I did not cry.
More and more, whether or not you cried at a film seems to be a marker for if it’s actually any good. I wholeheartedly disagree. Just because I didn’t have a physical response to Hamnet, doesn’t it mean I didn’t like or even love it. What’s more, it doesn’t mean I wasn’t moved in some way. In fact, I loved it, and here’s why just because I didn’t cry doesn’t mean I don’t have high praise in abundance for this book to screen adaptation.
Not everyone cries at films
I need to caveat that I’m not really a blubberer. I don’t often cry at emotional scenes in movies, TV shows, or books. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I’m (completely) dead inside. I definitely get swept away in the emotions, it just doesn’t often materialise physically with guttural sobbing. I might stretch to one single dramatic tear sliding down my cheek, but really it’s welling up at most for me.
I read Hamnet before I watched Chloé Zhao’s adaptation
As mentioned, I had read Hamnet prior to seeing the adaptation. All this to say, I knew what was coming. I knew the storyline, I knew the particular notes in the narrative that would be particularly heartwrenching.
Of course, plenty of fans of the book have gone on to see the film and wailed at both. But as someone notorious for not really crying at films, books, and the like, I think there has to be an element of not seeing something coming for me to leak from the eyes…
I was completely awe-struck by the cinematography
Often when a film is described as “visually stunning”, it can seem like a covert way of saying one that might look good, but lacks substance. That’s not the case with Hamnet, though – and it also was visually stunning.
Read the book or not, Agnes’ character is one with the natural world. Her mother, a forest witch, went to the forest to give birth to her, and we see Agnes do the same with her first child, Susanna in the film. And this connection to the earth is beautifully captured in the scenery. Think dappled sunlight through a canopy of leaves created by great trees, branches stemming from thick trunks.
Yes, this is Tudor England, but also I couldn’t help but be astonished by just how much greenery there was. It was lush and vibrant and alive. So yeah, I may not have cried, but this film completely took my breath away – a different but valid physical response.
Jacobi Jupe is my Oscar winner
All the credit to Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. They had me in the palm of their hands, particularly Buckley who I hope will be scooping up that Best Actress Oscar in March. But the star of the show for me had to be Jacobi Jupe, who played young Hamnet.
Sure, it’s not exactly difficult to strike a chord when you’re a kid and you’re about to die on the big screen. That’s a one way ticket to getting the audience sobbing (or in my case, a lump in my throat and a jutting bottom lip).
But there were so many other moments where Jupe utterly impressed me. A boy bidding farewell to his father who was off, yet again, on a work trip, losing his sword fighting companion. Hamnet attempts to put on a brave face, but he will miss his father, taking himself off to the garden to have a tearful moment alone. That expression that a child carries their parents’ heart around with them came to mind here, and I’m not even a parent (of children – I am of a very entitled cat).
We won’t talk about Hamnet’s moments in the globe theatre, because I honestly can’t even think about it without drowning in sadness (not tears, though).
The finale scene at the globe really captured the themes of the novel for me
I’m not a big Shakespeare girlie. I’m a big reader, but I don’t often wade into the classics because I just don’t Get It, and nobody needs to work that hard at their hobby. So while I sort of understood the significance of the writing of Hamlet as a testament to his deceased son, I think watching the Hamnet film really drove it home for me.
Not simply the events of the play being acted out (can we give it up for Noah Jupe, please – older brother of Jacobi FYI!), but in how it symbolises grief; the ways in which we process it differently, and how this can hurt those around us by proxy. And also how art and stories are a way for those we love to live on even once they are gone.
So fine, yes, I didn’t cry at Hamnet. But I thought it was beautiful and poignant, and a wonderful adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s spellbinding novel. And if you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely should.
.jpg)
.png)
