Hamnet

 

In a pivotal scene near the close of Chloé Zhao's achingly romantic and heartbreaking adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, Jessie Buckley's Agnes (pronounced "Annis") attends the premiere of husband William Shakespeare's latest work, a tragedy titled Hamlet.

Both brittle and flinty from the recent death of Hamnet, their young son (a heart-tugging Jacobi Jupe), Agnes enters the Globe, not believing that Will (a virtuosic Paul Mescal) has written a play bearing the boy's name without telling her, and that so many people have come to see it. She's stunned and mystified and furious.

Agnes is accompanied by her brother Bartholomew (a steady Joe Alwyn), who urges her to keep her heart open, echoing their herbalist/animist mother. Though those words are spoken near the end of the picture, it's great advice to anyone venturing into Zhao's world of love, labor and loss.

Of course, keeping your heart open will be painful. Much is asked of the audience, but nothing close to what is demanded of the players, especially Buckley. She's honest and visceral, fully owning every embrace and every tear. Hers is a showpiece of film acting.

Other standout performers are Emily Watson as Will's loving, puritan mother Mary; and Noah Jupe, older brother to Jacobi, as Hamlet in the Globe staging of the play.

Agnes asks Will during their first meeting to tell her a story that moves him, and Hamnet delivers.