<\/p>\n
The Telluride Film Festival is one of awards season’s biggest stages, and Oscar-winning director Chlo\u00e9 Zhao<\/strong> delivered a command performance on its opening night. The Nomadland<\/em> filmmaker’s latest feature, Hamnet<\/em> \u2014 which stars Paul Mescal<\/strong> as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley<\/strong> as his wife Agnes \u2014 took a first bow in front of an eager audience of critics and film fans, who spilled out of the theater feeling shaken and stirred.<\/p>\n “The most devastating movie I’ve seen in years,” reads the headline of Bilge Ebiri<\/strong>‘s rave New York<\/em> review<\/a> of Hamnet<\/em>, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell<\/strong>‘s 2020 novel that imagines what might have happened in the Shakespeare marriage following the death of the couple’s young son and the impact it had on the Bard of Avon’s most famous play. “The book was overwhelming, too,” Ebiri notes, adding that he went into Zhao’s film version steeling himself for an emotional gut punch.<\/p>\n More from Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n “Still, I did not really expect to cry this<\/em> much,” he writes. “That’s not just because of the tragic weight of the material, but because the picture reimagines the poetic act of creating Hamlet<\/em>. Shakespeare’s play sits on the highest shelf. … And yet, here is a movie that dares to explore its inception. The attempt itself is noble, and maybe a little brazen; that it succeeds feels downright supernatural.”<\/p>\n Variety<\/em>‘s Peter Debruge<\/strong> also uses<\/a> “devastating” in his headline, specifically in reference to Buckley’s performance. “The actor has shown a fierce, rebellious, untamable spirit since the 2018 role that put her on the map, Wild Rose<\/em>,” he observes, drawing comparisons between Zhao’s film and the work of Terrence Malick<\/strong>. “It\u2019s a beautiful, radical, dangerous act,” Debruge says, later noting: “If \u201cHamnet\u201d feels too much at times, ask yourself why that is. Is it the movie\u2019s fault, or is Zhao challenging us to confront something we\u2019ve been avoiding until now?”<\/p>\n Writing in The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, Angie Han<\/strong><\/a> throws some love Mescal’s way, calling the Gladiator II<\/em> star’s performance “wonderful” and reiterating that viewers should be ready for tears. “He underplays his emotions when one might expect him to go big, which makes the moments when he does explode all the more impactful,” Han writes. “But it\u2019s Buckley who really stuns, as she evolves Agnes from the free-spirited girl of the grass to the loving wife and mother to the brittle and grieving woman. She grounds a character who could have seemed too ethereal in raw, naked feeling; there\u2019s a moment when she screams with grief until she runs out of sound that I\u2019ll be thinking about for a long time.”<\/p>\n Over in The Playlist<\/em>, Gregory Ellwood<\/strong><\/a> indicates that Hamnet<\/em> is a return to form for Zhao after her detour into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the divisive Eternals<\/em>. “Zhao is back to the expressionistic and realistic aesthetic that captivated in her previous films…\u00a0except, with a bit of a twist. World-building has become a bit of a dirty word in cinema circles these days, but it\u2019s inherent to Zhao\u2019s vision of late 16th-century England. … [She] pulls that off not only by setting the film\u2019s non-traditional tone almost immediately, but by pulling incredibly grounded and visceral turns from her actors.”<\/p>\n “Welcome back, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao,” Ellwood concludes. “We missed you.”<\/p>\n Best of Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Gold Derby’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n