<p class="ql-block"><b>Hamnet</b> received 8 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (<b>Chloe Zhao</b>), Best Actress (<b>Jessie Buckley</b>), Best adapted screenplay (Maggie O’Farrell & Chloe Zhao), Best Original Score, etc. </p><p class="ql-block">The story took place during the period when the young William Shakespear and his wife Agnes lost their 11 year old boy, Hamnet. The tragedy led him to write one of his famous plays, “Hamlet”, through this, the couple healed their wounds and made peace with Hamnet’s death.</p><p class="ql-block">It is a well executed movie, but the first two thirds are just very ordinary, uninspiring, I wasn’t drawn into it until the final 50 minutes or so, when the emotions were like a volcanic explosion, it drew open all my tear ducts and I was sobbing like everyone else in the theater.</p> <p class="ql-block"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:18px;">Agnes was a woman in tune with nature, she could see and feel things other people couldn’t, the village people said she was the daughter of a forest witch. When she first met Will, the Latin teacher for boys in the village, she knew she was destined to marry him. They had their daughter Susanna a year later, and soon she was pregnant with their second. Will could not focus on his writing of “Romeo and Juliet” with the baby crying in the background, Agnes sent him off to London because that was where things were happening. Her second pregnancy brought twins (Hamnet and Judith) to the family, which was a surprise, as she always knew (or foreseen) that there would be two children at her deathbed. Judith, seemly a stillborn, miraculously drew her first breath after Agnes held her for a while. In the years following Agnes always guarded Judith close-by for fear she would be taken. Then the black plague happened, Judith came down with a high fever, laying in bed lifeless. Agnes took all the folklore remedies she knew to save her from death. Hamnet, 11 years old then, acted bravely like his father told him to be, stayed with Judith in the night. As he saw death coming, he asked Judith to turn her head away to cheat death, not knowing he was the one being taken.</span></p> <p class="ql-block">When Agnes suddenly woke up, she saw Judith was better, but Hamnet was spasming with a fever. As she’s frantically trying to revive him, Susanna shouted, “Don’t you see he was dead already?!”. At that point, she let out a howling that could’ve shattered the windows. </p><p class="ql-block">This is the first time I see how a death was depicted in a movie: while Agnes was shaking and reviving Hamnet, the movie cut in and out of another scene, in which Hamnet was wondering in a foggy grayish void, alone, scared, confused, and calling “mama, mama”, this was such a heart breaking scene, yet such a powerful scene!</p><p class="ql-block">Will and Agnes grieved differently, she could let out all her emotions while he only bled inside. For a man of words, he was at a loss for words to comfort her. she blamed him for not being there to hold their son while he was suffering the agony of death. In his grief, however, the words flowed freely into his play “Hamlet”. </p> <p class="ql-block">Agnes and her bother went to see the play “Hamlet”, in which Will played the Ghost of the dead King, revealing to Hamlet that he was poisoned and murdered, and asking Hamlet to avenge his death. He was about to leave the stage when Agnes called his attention, he slowly turned around, couldn’t contain his emotions anymore, he called out “my boy!”, “adieu”, this was his way to finally say goodbye to Hamnet.</p><p class="ql-block">When Hamlet died on stage in the final scene, Agnes already couldn’t tell if the boy on stage was his boy or the actor, she held his hand as he died just as she held Hamnet when he died, however, the pain was gone this time, she was finally at peace and accepted that he had gone to another world. </p> <p class="ql-block">The play “Hamlet” cured both of their aching hearts. </p><p class="ql-block">I was put off by the birthing scenes (yes, twice), it’s a bit gross. I remember when I was attending a Lamaze class many years ago, the nurse said that “giving birth is glorious, but not glamorous”. Very unglamorous!</p><p class="ql-block">This movie lays all emotions, joy, suffering, pain, … bare, there is no subtlety, very Hollywood. </p><p class="ql-block">Jessie Buck will probably win the best actress award. </p>