Jules’ Journal: Hamnet: Raw, Elemental & Unapologetically Feminine
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Section Editor, Juliette Allen, deconstructs unbridled maternal grief & anguish displayed by Actress Jessie Buckley in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet
Content Warning: This review contains discussions surrounding death of a child and grief, as well as spoilers from the film.
Wow! It is hard to believe the time has come again for my favourite, the annual women’s issue. For Veiled our wonderful executives have implored us to examine women as wanderers, widows and waifs—the lost souls who have lived unseen, obscured, or forgotten. Who better to explore than none other than Anne or indeed Agnes Hatheway (‘Agnes’ is said to be a nickname in historical records), Willam Shakespeare’s enigmatic wife and mother of their three children including Hamnet, who’s said to be the inspiration for one of Shakespeare’s most notable plays; Hamlet.
Little has been discovered about Agnes' life with ‘barely any archival records detailing who Agnes was, at least as an individual outside of her famous husband’[1]. With this there have been few ‘historical analyses—all done by men—[whom] generally describe Hathaway as cold, jealous, and inconsequential to her husband’s life and work’[2]. Indeed, Maggie O’Farrell, infamously dubbed “a feminist avenging angel”[3], and acclaimed author of the aforementioned Hamnet, disagrees with this notion. O’Farrell’s novel instead reclaims the narrative for Hamnet’s mother, Agnes Hathaway, who, she says, has faced ‘jaw-dropping vilification and downright barefaced misogyny’ for almost 500 years. [O’Farrell exclaims that], “We’re fed this idea that she was an ignorant peasant strumpet who tricked this genius boy into marrying her’[4]. Her novel Hamnet has allowed for a reimagined perspective of who Hathaway was and turned it into ‘a rich exploration of grief’ spun out of the barest of facts. [Indeed] you can't say that O'Farrell distorted the real story, because there is no known story, despite centuries of historians digging around in Shakespeare's past’[5].
O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet’s roaring success and critical acclaim led to a screenplay, with a stellar team including O’Farrell herself and the likes of Chloe Zhao, an incredible and well regarded director, with works including the multi-award winning Indie film, Nomadland (2021). Zhao’s take on Hamnet was a fresh retelling of the seminal novel, that ‘bypasses the trappings of often-glossy Shakespearean adaptations to assemble images and characters that feel simultaneously of their time and timeless, just like the English bard’s body of work’[6]. Indeed, Zhao and O'Farrell, worked together to adapt the novel to screen by streamlining the storyline and making it more gothic in its imagery and cinematography. They also worked closely with Jessie Buckley, the amazing actress who portrays Agnes, encouraging her to do dream workshops to really hone into the characters inner workings and convey this on screen. The phenomenal trio of Zhao, O’Farrell and Buckley, have managed to contrast historical misogynistic portrayals of Agnes and instead ‘breathe life into this unknown woman’[7].
The beating heart of the film is unequivocally, Jessie Buckley’s performance of Agnes, with many critics labelling it a career-best through her broad emotional range, that depicts Agnes from girlhood and all the way into motherhood. We as an audience are shown Agnes’s deep and almost primal connection to nature right from the very beginning of the film where we are introduced to her asleep amongst leaves, curled into a ball tucked into a curve of roots from an enormous and cavernous tree adorned in a bright vibrant red tunic, looking entirely at peace. We later are taken back to that very same tree where Agnes continues in her ways as ‘a creature of nature’ that when her water breaks with her first child, she slips off into the woods [there] to give birth alone’[8]. This scene, I myself, found to be incredibly striking and deeply raw that was unlike anything I had witnessed before, especially in relation to giving birth—which on screen tends to be super clinical and chaotic, never so in touch with nature and focused entirely on the connection between a mother and her child.
It is when the plague descends on the familial household we hit the climax of the film, where emotional Agnes’ turmoil becomes inescapable. The plague takes Judith, daughter of Hathaway hostage, where she battles the throws of the sickness, death awaits her closely, but instead changes course and takes Judith’s twin Hamnet instead. It is unexpected and deeply cutting in the final moments where Hamnet flails and groans and just as quickly as it came he stills and falls silent. For a few mere seconds nothing can be heard after his final breath, but what comes next is the most harrowing and guttural scream from Agnes, accompanied with a very close up shot of her face, screwed up and deeply red where she continues wailing until she can’t scream any longer. Jessie Buckley has since revealed in an interview following the film that this pivotal point in the scene where she screams indeed wasn’t in the script at all but improv that after a few takes just came naturally, exclaiming that ‘that scream it felt like it was ancient or something and that grief that we all feel within ourselves just came through’[9]. This maternal grief that was displayed was ‘astonishing and thunderous, feral and tender in equal measure. Buckley doesn’t play grief as something that arrives all at once; she allows it to seep, to corrode, to rearrange Agnes from the inside out’[10].
Hamnet takes the audience on an emotionally tumultuous journey through the deepest of traumas, it breaks us down and makes us reflect on the fragility of life and the most fundamental connections that make us human. If you haven't seen this film yet, It is one of my highest recommendations of a film that is sure to have a profound impact. Both Jessie Buckely and Chloe Zhao deserve every accolade for this stunningly beautiful film.
By Juliette Allen
References
[1], [2], [7] Hinds.C, (2025). Hamnet — Mediaversity Reviews. <https://www.mediaversityreviews.com/film-reviews/2025/12/23/hamnet>
[3], [4] Armitstead, C. (2020). Shakespearean sisterhood: Maggie O’Farrell on Hamnet. The Guardian.
[5] James, C. (2025). “History has treated her badly”: Hamnet and the 400-year-old mystery around Shakespeare’s wife and son. BBC.
[6] Peregoy, C. (2025). ‘Hamnet’ Review: Chloé Zhao’s Glorious Examination of the Precipice Between Life and Death — Foremost Film.
[8] Han, A. (2025).’‘Hamnet’ Review: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal Are a Wonder in Chloé Zhao’s Gorgeous and Shattering Shakespeare-Inspired Drama’. The Hollywood Reporter.
[9] The Hollywood Reporter (2025) ‘Jessie Buckley Opens Up About Filming the Emotional Death Scene in Hamnet’. Facebook
[10] Gray, P. (2026). Film Review: Hamnet; a love story that learns how to survive grief. The AU Review. <https://www.theaureview.com/film-review-hamnet>
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