---
title: "Hamnet"
year: 2025
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/hamnet"
fi1m_id: "hamnet"
imdb_id: "tt14905854"
tmdb_id: 858024
wikidata_id: "Q122741016"
fi1m_score: 76
critics_score: 83
critics_reviews: 16
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:46.364485+00:00"
region: "PL"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Hamnet (2025)

Directed by Chloé Zhao · 2h 05m · Drama, Romance

## Identity

Hamnet

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/hamnet
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** hamnet
- **IMDb ID:** tt14905854
- **TMDB ID:** 858024
- **Wikidata ID:** Q122741016
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14905854/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/858024, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q122741016

**Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 83 from 16 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two hours of beautiful people weeping in candlelight, and then a play starts and it gets you anyway

> Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is a grief film first and a Shakespeare film a distant second, and Jessie Buckley carries it. The middle hour cries too much and too prettily; the last act, in London, earns most of what the rest asks for.

## Synopsis

Stratford-upon-Avon, before anyone has heard of the plays. Agnes (Jessie Buckley) lives at the edge of the forest, keeps a hawk, knows which plant does what, and is talked about in the town as something close to a witch. Will (Paul Mescal) is a glover’s son who teaches Latin to work off his father’s debts. They marry, move into his family’s house under his mother Mary (Emily Watson) and father John (David Wilmot), and have children, among them a boy called Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and his twin Judith (Olivia Lynes). Chloé Zhao’s film, written with Maggie O’Farrell from O’Farrell’s novel, follows the mother rather than the writer.

## Review

Stratford-upon-Avon, some years before anyone has heard of the plays. Agnes (Jessie Buckley) lives at the edge of the forest, keeps a hawk, knows which plant does what, and is talked about in the town as something close to a witch. Will (Paul Mescal) is a glover’s son teaching Latin to pay off his father’s debts. They marry, they have children, and one of those children is a boy called Hamnet. Anyone who knows the outline of Shakespeare’s life knows what happened to that boy, and Chloé Zhao’s film, written with Maggie O’Farrell from O’Farrell’s novel, assumes you do. It is not a film about how the plays got written. It is a film about a mother, and the plays arrive late and from the side.

It is good, and we recommend it with a reservation the size of its middle hour. Buckley is the reason to go. Zhao has made a film that knows exactly what it wants you to feel and when, and for long stretches we felt it and minded being managed. Then the last act moves to London and we stopped minding.

Łukasz Żal, who shot *Cold War* and [*The Zone of Interest*](https://film.one/film/the-zone-of-interest), keeps the camera close and mostly at the height of a face. The forest is green daylight and moving leaves; the house in the town is fire and window and not much else, so that people are lit from one side and everything behind them falls into shadow. Fiona Crombie’s production design makes the Shakespeare house a working place, low beams and a glove workshop off the hall, rather than a museum with the ropes taken down. Malgosia Turzanska dresses everyone in undyed wool and linen with mud on the hems. Nobody looks laundered, and it helps.

Buckley plays Agnes as someone always listening to something nobody else in the house can hear. She is barefoot and quick in the woods and watchful indoors, and when the film asks her to fall apart she does it without once reaching for the audience. Mescal’s Will is quiet, hesitant and half-absent, and Zhao keeps him at the edge of the frame. That is a choice with a cost: there is not a line in the film that sounds like it came from the man who wrote the plays, and we think that was deliberate and we are not sure it was wise. Emily Watson’s Mary has buried children of her own and says so plainly. Joe Alwyn is solid as Agnes’s brother Bartholomew. Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet and Olivia Lynes as Judith are the best kind of child actors, the kind you forget are acting.

The trouble is the stretch after illness enters the house. The film settles on grief at one pitch and holds it. Buckley weeps, Mescal weeps, Watson weeps, and Richter’s strings come in under nearly all of it. Zhao and Affonso Gonçalves, who edited together, hold on faces well past the point where the face has told us everything. We cried in the bedroom scenes, and we noticed, halfway through crying, that the music had told us to, and we resented it. The feeling was real. So was the resentment.

In its last twenty minutes the film goes to London, and we will not describe what happens there. We can say that it is where the title and the play finally meet, that Noah Jupe, Jacobi’s brother, is cast as the actor playing Hamlet, and that this is the cleverest single idea in the film. We sat through the credits. Whatever we thought of the hour before it, the ending is paid for by Buckley’s face and by Zhao, for once, letting a scene run without a hand on our shoulder.

Her earlier films, *The Rider* and *Nomadland*, were made by watching people and waiting. Here she has a plot with a fixed end and a well-loved novel to honour, and the waiting has gone. At 125 minutes nothing drags, but nothing wanders either, and we missed the wandering.

It is a 12A, and the certificate is about right: nothing here a twelve-year-old cannot see, though a good deal they may not want to. Take someone who does not mind crying in public. You will both be doing it.

*Fi1m score 76, published 9 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**How long is Hamnet, and what is it rated?**

*Hamnet* runs 2h 05m. It is a drama and romance film.

**Where can I watch Hamnet in Poland?**

*Hamnet* is streaming on SkyShowtime and Amazon Prime Video in Poland, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from zł 14.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**What should I watch after Hamnet?**

After *Hamnet*, try [*Ordinary People*](https://film.one/film/ordinary-people) (1980, Fi1m 81): Grief splits a family; Mary Tyler Moore is the parent who will not weep. Then [*Cold War*](https://film.one/film/cold-war) (2018, Fi1m 85): Żal’s camera on two people who cannot stay together, in eighty-eight minutes; and [*Ponette*](https://film.one/film/ponette) (1996, Fi1m 84): A four-year-old loses her mother; the least manipulative film on the subject.

### Reviews we read (26)

- **Radio Times**, James Mottram (5/5): The critic calls the film a masterly, intimate study of loss that avoids glossy romance in favour of raw family drama and creative catharsis. Buckley delivers one of her greatest performances as Agnes, whose grief fuels an unforgettable finale centred on the power of Shakespeare’s art. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/hamnet-review/)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (5/5): The critic hails Buckley and Mescal’s career-best performances in Zhao’s emotionally overwhelming Tudor drama about loss, motherhood and the redemptive power of art. It is described as a deep-felt ode to resilience that demands towels rather than tissues for its cathartic finale. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/hamnet-review-2025)
- **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (95/100, inferred): The critic deems it devastating and perhaps the most emotionally shattering movie seen in years, succeeding in exploring the inception of Hamlet as a vessel for confronting grief and loss. Zhao’s linear adaptation, aided by Richter’s score, finds melancholy in movement while Buckley and Mescal deliver phenomenal performances that make the life-to-art connections feel supernatural. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/hamnet-review-the-most-devastating-movie-ive-seen-in-years.html)
- **The i Paper**, Francesca Steele (90/100, inferred): The film is profoundly moving and gut-wrenching, with Jessie Buckley giving a performance for the ages as Agnes. Zhao's direction and the cinematography create a pastoral fever-dream that balances despair with a strange optimism about life and art. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/sobbed-through-hamnet-gut-wrenching-4104154)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (90/100, inferred): This transcendent adaptation will be an Oscar frontrunner, with grief and beauty in equal measure. Buckley gives a performance for the ages as Agnes, and Zhao directs impeccably with subtle emotional logic. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/hamnet-movie-review-paul-mescal-jessie-buckley-d0bwdn0md)
- **Empire**, John Nugent (85/100, inferred): The film is a wrenching contemplation of grief and death, with strong performances especially from Jessie Buckley serving a clear vision from Chloé Zhao. The heart-rending finale at the Globe provides catharsis through the staging of Hamlet. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/hamnet/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Angie Han (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it a tremendously acted heartbreaker that pairs joy and fear, love and loss in a cycle as old as life, turning them into something gorgeous and cathartic through Zhao’s direction. Buckley’s raw, naked performance as Agnes evolving through grief stands out as especially stunning, alongside strong work from Mescal. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/hamnet-review-jessie-buckley-paul-mescal-chloe-zhao-1236357328/)
- **The Telegraph** (85/100, inferred): This sublime adaptation could not have been done better, with Mescal superb as grieving Shakespeare and Buckley’s performance ringing true. The film is devastating yet not a downer thanks to its sublime final reel. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2025/10/11/hamnet-film-adaptation-review/)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge (Critics Pick): Chloé Zhao delivers a radical, emotionally raw and dangerous adaptation centered on feminine energy and the acceptance of loss. Jessie Buckley gives a heroic, devastating performance as Agnes that eclipses the rest of the film. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/hamnet-review-jessie-buckley-1236502623/)
- **The AV Club**, Jesse Hassenger (B+): The film is an emotional wrecking ball that sticks the landing with a stunning final act of catharsis and communion through art, rooted in Buckley’s ferocious, raw performance as Agnes. It could use more of Zhao’s signature wandering freedom in the midsection, but the connection between life, grief, and Hamlet remains powerful and richer than a simple tearjerker. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/hamnet-review)
- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The film powerfully reimagines the loss of Hamnet as the source of Hamlet through a romantic fantasy that deepens the mystery with creative audacity. Performances by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal captivate, supported by beautiful cinematography. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/06/hamnet-review-paul-mescal-jessie-buckley-shakespeare-hamlet)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson (30/100, inferred): The lush adaptation sinks under nonstop crying and a dull, stammering portrayal of Shakespeare that lacks wit or depth. Buckley's raw performance as the witchy Agnes shows every variation of grief but the story feels soggy and overly manipulative. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-11-25/hamnet-review-jessie-buckley-paul-mescal-joe-alwyn-chloe-zhao)
- **Financial Times** (★★★☆☆): The film is both a moving meditation on loss and a slick weepie, with strong performances from Mescal and Buckley. It risks prettifying despair and turning the story into a polished hymn to great art rather than capturing life’s messiness. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/b8fcd9a6-e65d-4333-b547-2c3550d9cf84)
- **Screen Daily**: The critic finds Zhao’s adaptation a delicate exploration of how art addresses but never fully heals personal pain, anchored by Buckley and Mescal’s expertly modulated performances. It is presented as a potent love story charting the couple’s romance and the son’s death that inspired Hamlet. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/hamnet-review-jessie-buckley-and-paul-mescal-power-chloe-zhaos-potent-shakespeare-drama/5208708.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The critic praises Zhao’s immersive adaptation for capturing the raw emotional currents of desire, grief and creative transformation between Agnes and Will. Buckley and Mescal’s performances anchor a film that shows how art channels personal loss without fully healing it. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/hamnet-chloe-zhaos-adaptation-maggie-ofarrells-best-selling-novel-devastating-exploration-loss-creative-alchemy)
- **The New York Times**, Alissa Wilkinson (Critic’s Pick): The film is ardent and searing with heartache and beauty, though it occasionally veers into sentimentality that the director cannot fully control. Jessie Buckley gives a magnificent, ferocious performance as Agnes that anchors the story. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/movies/hamnet-review.html)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (9/10): The critic calls the film a towering work and one of the year's best, emotionally devastating yet cathartic in showing how art heals from immense pain and loss. They single out the tender, heartbreaking performances by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as among the year's best. [Read](https://collider.com/hamnet-review-paul-mescal-jessie-buckley-chloe-zhao/)
- **The Playlist**, Gregory Ellwood (A-): The critic hails the film as an expressionistic masterwork and welcome return for Zhao, with Buckley and Mescal delivering gut-wrenching, bone-deep performances that make the emotional intensity arresting and authentic. The final act’s gut-punch moments, Zhao’s world-building, and the score by Max Richter are highlighted as particularly powerful. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/hamnet-review-jessie-buckley-paul-mescal-are-utterly-extraordinary-in-chloe-zhaos-expressionistic-wonder-telluride-20250830/)
- **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (8/10): The critic finds the film devastating and effective at evoking tears through its focus on grief and loss, with Buckley’s raw, heartbreaking performance as Agnes singled out as brilliant and the emotional centerpiece. The staging of key late sequences and the score are noted as especially powerful, though the overall tone is acknowledged as relentlessly bleak. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/2034805/hamnet-movie-review/)
- **The Skinny**, Stefania Sarrubba (3/5): The critic finds it a gorgeous film about catharsis through art but notes its contrived elements, tension, discomfort, and lack of rhythm make for an alienating watch, while praising Buckley's magnificent performance. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/hamnet-review)
- **Deadline**: The review highlights Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal's magnificent performances in Chloé Zhao’s emotional story of love, death, Shakespeare and art. It praises the film as a stunning tale that moves from love story to deep pain and ultimately relief and hope. [Read](https://deadline.com/2025/08/hamnet-review-jessie-buckley-paul-mescal-chloe-zhao-telluride-1236501946/)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (4 out of 5): The critic praises the film's focus on Agnes (Anne Hathaway) and Buckley's tour de force performance as the emotional core, highlighting the exploration of domestic tragedy and loss from the family's perspective rather than Shakespeare's. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/hamnet-review-shakespeare-greatest-tragedy/)
- **Digital Spy**, Ian Sandwell (5 stars): The critic calls it one of the best movies of the year, praising the devastating yet life-affirming story of grief and the standout performances, especially Buckley's career-best turn. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a69027099/hamnet-review/)
- **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila: The critic praises the film as a moving exploration of life, loss, grief, and creation centered on the parents' responses to tragedy rather than a standard Shakespeare biopic. Buckley’s raw, natural performance as Agnes stands out as the emotional core, with Zhao’s direction and Richter’s score singled out for deepening the impact of themes around enduring love and art born from pain. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/hamnet-review-to-cry-or-not-to-cry/)
- **NME**, Nick Levine (4 stars): The critic describes it as a powerful portrait of grief, singling out Buckley's shattering performance as the driving force while noting some heavy-handed direction. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/hamnet-review-paul-mescal-jessie-bukley-shakespeare-chloe-zhao-3921781)
- **The Wrap**: The critic calls Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” a towering achievement and one of the best films of the year or any year. It singles out the deeply felt direction, indelible performances by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, and the profound exploration of loss, love and the power of art. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/hamnet-review-chloe-zhao/)

## Details

- **Director:** Chloé Zhao
- **Director:** Chloé Zhao
- **Screenplay:** Chloé Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell
- **Novel:** Maggie O'Farrell
- **Cinematography:** Łukasz Żal
- **Editor:** Affonso Gonçalves, Chloé Zhao
- **Music:** Max Richter
- **Production design:** Fiona Crombie
- **Costume design:** Malgosia Turzanska
- **Producer:** Pippa Harris, Liza Marshall, Sam Mendes
- **Cast:** Jessie Buckley as Agnes; Paul Mescal as Will; Emily Watson as Mary; Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew; Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet; Noah Jupe as Hamlet; Olivia Lynes as Judith; Justine Mitchell as Joan
- **Runtime:** 2h 05m
- **Release (Poland):** 23 January 2026
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2025); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2025); [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Winner, 2025)
- **Budget:** $30 million
- **Box office:** $108 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYcgQMxQwmk

## Where to watch in Poland

- SkyShowtime: streaming, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent zł 14.99, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy zł 39.99, sd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HU, ID, IE, IT, JP, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PH, PL, RO, SE, SG, SK, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The Rider* (2017): Zhao before the script tightened: a cowboy, a horse, and nobody visibly acting.
- *Ordinary People* (1980), Fi1m 81: Grief splits a family; Mary Tyler Moore is the parent who will not weep. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ordinary-people.md)
- *Cold War* (2018), Fi1m 85: Żal’s camera on two people who cannot stay together, in eighty-eight minutes. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cold-war.md)
- *Ponette* (1996), Fi1m 84: A four-year-old loses her mother; the least manipulative film on the subject. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ponette.md)
- *Truly, Madly, Deeply* (1990), Fi1m 80: Juliet Stevenson’s crying scene is the honest version of what Hamnet reaches for. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/truly-madly-deeply.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/hamnet