SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One of the most talked about films on the festival circuit this fall has been "Hamnet," based on a 2020 novel about William Shakespeare. The thing that's being talked about is how many moviegoers, even hardened critics, leave the film sobbing. NPR's Bob Mondello admits that he was one of them.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: I certainly didn't start out that way. The opening images are of a woman in scarlet, curled up among tree roots in a forest near Stratford. It's the 1580s, and Agnes, as she's known, is awaiting the return of a hawk. When she spots it on a branch and signals, it flies to her arm.
(SOUNDBITE OF WINGS FLUTTERING)
MONDELLO: Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley, has the same effect on Will, a young Latin tutor played by Paul Mescal. One look out the window at her and her hawk, and Will's abandoned his students and proves thoroughly tongue-tied in her presence, though she knows how to open him up.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
JESSIE BUCKLEY: (As Agnes Shakespeare) Tell me a story.
PAUL MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) What story would you like?
BUCKLEY: (As Agnes Shakespeare) Something that moves you.
MONDELLO: That, he can do. It'll be a whirlwind courtship. She takes his hand at one point and looks into his eyes.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) What are you doing?
MONDELLO: He's learned by this time that folks in town think her mother was a witch. She's certainly bewitched him.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) Is it true you know everything about a person by touching them here?
BUCKLEY: (As Agnes Shakespeare) Not everything.
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) What did you see?
BUCKLEY: (As Agnes Shakespeare) I saw a landscape.
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) You saw a landscape?
BUCKLEY: (As Agnes Shakespeare) Mm-hmm. Spaces, caves, tunnels and oceans, undiscovered countries.
MONDELLO: If he wasn't in love before, that does it. He says he wants to be handfasted now.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) I have no talent for waiting.
MONDELLO: Nobody approves. Doesn't matter - they've soon got a daughter, then adorable twins who grow and play and play act, pretending to be witches.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
JACOBI JUPE: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) But when shall we three meet again?
MONDELLO: Yes, three witches, like in one of the early plays Will's started writing for an acting troupe in London. They are happy, this family, though young Hamnet does miss his father when he's away.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) Will we go with you this time?
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) No, not yet. I need you to look after your mother and your sisters. Will you do that?
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) Yes.
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) Will you be brave?
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) Yes.
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) Yes. Will you be brave?
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) Yes.
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) Will you be brave? Huh?
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) Yes. Yes, I'll be brave.
MONDELLO: Based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel, Chloe Zhao's film luxuriates in the joy of these early scenes...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) Bye (laughter).
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare, laughter).
MONDELLO: ...Painting the family and the natural world in rich, earthy tones before bringing that world crashing down around them. Will is in London when tragedy strikes, so Buckley's anguished Agnes faces the death of their 11-year-old son alone...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
JACOBI: (As Hamnet Shakespeare) Mama.
BUCKLEY: (As Agnes Shakespeare, crying) My boy.
MONDELLO: ...And can't forgive Will for not being there. Buckley makes Agnes' grief so all-encompassing that she can barely register that Will also grieves, as he rushes back to a play in London bearing their son's name to try to get his actors to hold, as t'were, the mirror up to nature.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I am myself indifferent...
MESCAL: (As William Shakespeare) I am myself indifferent honest. Again.
MONDELLO: I think it's in this moment that the film shifts from being a portrait of a family tragedy to become a tale - an instance, almost - of the transcendent healing power of art. It takes directorial sleight of hand and historical fudging to make it all work, but work it does, in a knockout theatrical climax - Agnes reaching for a son who is no more, Will bringing forth a play that will never die.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMNET")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) To die. To sleep, perchance to dream.
MONDELLO: That magic the theater is supposed to perform is here performed. If there's been a more staggering cinematic catharsis in recent years, I've not experienced it.
I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAX RICHTER'S "OF THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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