Write a commentIf pressed, most of us could probably come up with James Bond's signature drink.
For those of you who can't come up with it offhand, don't bother looking it up. Vodka martini, shaken, not stirred. Being a longtime Bond fan, it was one of the first pieces of trivia I remembered from the series. In adulthood, I tried convincing myself I liked the drink to the point I'd order it at bars and wince through drinking it.
In 2006, "Casino Royale" released. It was advertised as a "back-to-basics" James Bond reboot; a prequel of sorts. We see Bond starting out, working his way through being a new Double 0 agent. At one point, he walks to a bartender. We want to hear the line. Instead, he orders something that sounds a bit more complicated. The joke is that he's just starting out and hasn't graduated into his signature drink.
"Hamnet" is basically that concept for Shakespeare historians stretched over an entire film. We see a romance blossom between Agnes (Buckley) and Will (Mescal). Over time, they have several children. They have trials, tribulations. It's your typical drama.
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The film leads us to believe that, after the death of one of his children, Will used his grief to write "Hamlet". Apparently, this is hotly debated in Shakespeare circles. The timeline matches up slightly and it's an interesting concept.
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The problem with concepts is they need to be well-executed. You can have the best script and production you'd like, but the movie still needs to be at least entertaining. I'm not saying to watch it with some sort of morbid, sadistic pleasure. I think it has to be emotionally cathartic.
And I'm an easy target. I'm the easiest crier you can find. Some stupid commercial comes on TV and it'll remind me of one of my parents and I'm done for. For a movie like "Hamnet" that is so emotionally overwrought, you'd think I would have had a bigger emotional reaction to it. I didn't and I don't know why.
I'm not one of those stony, can't cry guys. I was getting weepy during "Scream 7" after all. For a movie that's working overtime to push people into emotional catharsis, it failed. I don't know what that says about me as much as it does about the movie.
The performances were all decent, but nothing I'd go out of my way to recommend. There are moments that are presented as "raw" and "emotional" that feel very performative. Buckley is a talented actress and she's been in a lot of things I've actually enjoyed. She was pretty much the only thing that I actually enjoyed in "The Lost Daughter". In "Hamnet", there's an odd disconnect from it all.
Zhao, while brilliant at times, stages a lot of the scenes with this weird distance. Scenes of intimacy are filmed at angles that almost suggest surveillance. A lot of it looks pretty, the production design is top notch, but some wallpaper is pretty. Doesn't make it emotionally engaging.
Mescal does his best, but it's similar to Buckley. At some points, the two of them are just yelling and it's being presented as though it's "naked" and "raw". The problem is that none of it seems real. We understand what the filmmakers are going through leading up to the conclusion so when it happens, it's not very exciting.
Seeing what the inspiration to "Hamlet" was doesn't end up being that dramatic. We see Shakespeare coming up with some famous lines, not unlike Bond in "Casino Royale". It all seems like fan fiction. Most fan fiction at least identifies itself as such. "Hamnet" is presented as this high-art, Oscar nominated fare, produced by Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes.
Apparently Mendes originally planned to direct it with Tom Holland as Shakespeare. While I feel the version we get is much better than the Mendes/Holland combination, I can't say it would have been by much. After all is said and done, I'm disappointed. For all those involved, all the hype and award nominations. It's emotionally disconnected and performative, but pretty to look at.
To paraphrase a person much smarter than I am, it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. You'll notice how much power that simple statement holds on its own and without a two-hour Oscar bait origin story to go along with it.
Hamnet (2025)
Directed by Chloé Zhao
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Emily Watson, Noah Jupe
Runtime: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for thematic content, some strong sexuality and partial nudity)
Rating (out of ****): **1/2
"Hamnet" is now playing in theaters and is streaming on all major platforms for rent and purchase.
