‘Hamnet’ – A story about a part of Shakespeare’s life as emotionally charged as any of his plays

By creammagazine, January 15, 2026

Hamnet is a monumental celluloid connection to Shakespeare starring two of Ireland’s most magnetic actors, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. The film is beautifully produced, while its storyline tugs relentlessly at the heartstrings – without being apologetic.

The heartbreaking tale recounts the life of Shakespeare at the time when he wrote his play Hamlet, focusing on his inspiration directly correlated to his family’s grief over the tragic death of his young son. That the name of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, is interchangeable with name Hamlet could be considered poetic in itself. That the success of the play offers a sort of unexpected cathartic healing for the Bard and his wife’s bereavement is poetry-plus.

Not surprisingly, Hamnet is considered film of the year with rave reviews, deservedly so a haunting adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s poetic novel, which is one of the most acclaimed bestsellers of the 21st Century. By award winning director and co-writer, Chloé Zhao (O’Farrell herself is the other co-writer), who made the Oscar-winning Nomadland, it is the kind of film that you should give full attention to, and see in the cinema.

Set in Elizabethan England, the tangible details of Shakespeare’s world come to life with a truth and rawness that are far from subtle. Oh, and be prepared to be an emotional mess throughout the entire second half of the film.

Jessie Buckley’s outstanding performance is causing quite the stir in Hollywood as leading Oscar contender, having just secured a 2026 Golden Globe award for “Best Female Actor” motion picture. Jessie plays Agnes, the devastating role of Shakespeare’s insufferable wife, brutally honest challenging everyone around her with a fierce passion and unwavering loyalty to her children and husband. Starting out as a torrid romance that is forbidden, Shakespeare’s work in his early career as a playwright, takes priority with long passages of time working in London away from his family to better their prospects in life. The irony is that while he sacrifices family time, juggling the demands of staging his play Hamlet at the Globe theatre, his future poetic tragi-drama masterpieces rely on his real-life tragic loss and unbearable grief that pursues. Paul truly is an actor of the times, currently playing many roles with praiseworthy performances, a perfect and believable pairing with Jessie.

Hamnet feels like one of Shakespeare’s plays, a heart wrenchingly tragic tale of love, loss and prophesised death, where the children are the heart of the home and the burden of bereavement is too much to bear that its legacy must be captured through the genius of the Bard’s literary words. {Tone use this for pull quote enlarged}

A scene stealing moment captured with such raw truth and beauty left me haunted well after the viewing: on the stage of the Globe theatre when the actor performing a young Hamlet is a dead ringer for the young child that died Hamnet. Prince Hamlet’s tragic murder brings the audience in the pit to stunned emotional silence and we see Agnes transformed as her inner turmoil shifts from rage at blaming her husband for not being there to fathoming the meaning of the play, an homage to the love and grief for their deceased son Hamnet.

Annette McCubbin

 

‘Hamnet’ is in cinemas now including Luna Palace Cinemas.

 

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