A review released after the Toronto International Film Festival called Hamnet one of the year’s most affecting films, praising Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal for performances that anchor director Chloe Zhao’s lush reimagining of William Shakespeare’s family life. The 127‑minute drama, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, had its Canadian premiere at TIFF and is set for a wider theatrical release on Nov. 27.
The film traces the courtship and marriage of Agnes and William, their life in the English countryside and the sudden death of their 11‑year‑old son, Hamnet. Critics singled out a climactic scene featuring Buckley’s Agnes coming to terms with that loss as a heartrending moment that crystallizes the film’s themes of grief and the restorative potential of art. A New York Post review described the picture as “gut‑punching” and said that, in Zhao’s hands, what might have become sentimental instead plays as profound and cathartic.
Zhao, who won an Academy Award for Nomadland and directed Marvel’s Eternals, adapts O’Farrell’s speculative approach to little‑documented episodes in Shakespeare’s life. The screenplay focuses less on theatrical Easter eggs than on a domestic story rendered in meticulous period detail: Agnes as an earthy, herb‑gathering woman at odds with her village, William as a writer drawn to London to support his family, and the couple’s intense, messy partnership across years and losses.
Buckley and Mescal are repeatedly singled out for bringing texture and physical specificity to their roles. Buckley’s performance is described as “swinging from cast iron to porcelain,” capturing both the character’s playfulness and her devastating grief. Mescal, whose recent roles have often emphasized introversion, is noted for a more commanding presence here; reviewers say he speaks more forcefully and inhabits the playwright’s temperament in a way that complements Buckley’s volatility.
Child actors are integral to the emotional arc. Jacobi Jupe plays Hamnet; reviewers said his resemblance to his onstage sibling is used to shattering effect when the film makes a structural connection between the family tragedy and the later staging of Hamlet. Noah Jupe appears in the story’s theatrical scenes as the Danish prince, a choice the film uses to underscore its meditation on how private loss may feed public art.
Critics noted Zhao’s restraint in avoiding showy “aha” moments about Shakespeare’s canon; the film utters his full name only once and leans into the question of whether personal tragedy informed the playwright’s work without making literal claims. The cinematography favors pastoral, almost fairytale imagery early on—drawing comparisons to the Forest of Arden—then grows more intimate and spare as the story turns inward to grief.
The film’s emotional center, reviewers say, rests on the interplay between performance and direction: intimate closeups, physical gestures and a willingness to linger on unglamorous moments of mourning. While reviewers warned that the picture can be emotionally draining, they also described its effect as cathartic, with Buckley’s turn positioned as a possible breakout for mainstream audiences already familiar with her work in more experimental projects.
Hamnet opened at TIFF to strong critical attention and will reach U.S. theaters on Nov. 27. The film’s reception in Toronto suggests it will be a topic of awards‑season conversation, particularly for acting and direction, as audiences and critics respond to its austere treatment of loss and the ways it refracts the origins of a canonical play.