While William Shakespeare's Hamlet is well known, the story behind its creation is less familiar. The film Hamnet explores the tragic loss of Shakespeare's son.

Hollywood

The historical drama 'Hamnet,' starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, centers on William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes as they mourn the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet. This tragedy is widely believed to have inspired Shakespeare's classic play 'Hamlet.'

Based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel and directed by Chloé Zhao, the film emphasizes Shakespeare's love for his family, a perspective often absent from historical biographies. 'Hamnet' has received positive reviews, including a four-star rating from critic Jackson Weaver, and won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The history behind the film Hamnet

Is it true you know everything about a person by touching them here? Not everything. He's got more inside of him than any man I've ever met. Who are you looking for? William Shakespeare. That's a look at the historical drama Hamnet starring Paul Muskell and Jessica Buckley. It follows Jesse Buckley, it follows William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes as they mourn the death of their 11-year-old son. That tragedy inspired Shakespeare to write his classic play Hamlet. The film is in theaters nationwide today after a limited theatrical run last month. Hamnet also took home the People's Choice Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. And Jackson Weaver is here to share his thoughts on this. So Jackson, while this draws from history, it's not your typical based on a true story kind of story, right? Yeah, no, I mean, we do know three important historical facts. One is that the names Hamnet and Hamlet during Shakespeare's life were functionally interchangeable. We also know that Hamnet, Shakespeare's 11-year-old son, died at the age of 11 in the year 1596. And we know that Hamlet, the play, was written around the year 1600. So given those very appetizing parallels to be made, it's no surprise that many writers, scholars, historians have theorized, well, these things must have been connected. There has to be an inspiration there, because as everyone that has read or seen Hamlet knows, it's very preoccupied with grief about a prince whose father dies and he is driven almost insane by that grief, by that sadness. And the author, the Irish author, Maggie O'Farrell thought, of course, these things must be connected as well. So she wrote the book upon which this Chloé Zhao-directed film is based on. The real thing, though, that she wanted to get across, it's not like a real story, obviously. Much of this, almost all this is invented. But what she wanted to have come across was the fact that William Shakespeare loved his family, loved his children, something that actually wasn't really hammered home in a lot of the historical biographies made about Shakespeare. We have a clip here, and I want you to see exactly that tone that O'Farrell, who co-wrote this screenplay with Zhao, really tried to get across. The love between Shakespeare and his young son. Let's see it in this clip here. I understand. That's good. Because I need you to look after your mother and your sisters. Will you do that? Yes. Will you be brave? Yes. Yes. Will you be brave? Yes. Will you be brave? Yes. Yes, I'll be brave. I'll be brave. So there, of course, you see Paul Metzger as William Shakespeare, Jacoby Joop as the young Hamnet. In one of the lighter, happier parts of this film, which I think you can kind of predict, unfortunately, it gets quite sad, quite harrowing, but very impressive still. So given that finding, what do you think? Is it worth watching? Absolutely. This is, if you can take some heartbreak, because there is some considerable heartbreak in this, it is so fantastically put together. Jesse Buckley, who plays Agnes, also knows Anne Hathaway, William Shakespeare's wife, is fantastic, almost guaranteed Best Actress nomination, and pretty confident in even winning that award, even at this point. We have a graphic, I believe, of my star rating. You can see kind of exactly what I think. Four out of five stars. This is definitely something to check out if you have the time.

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