Hamnet is the story of Shakespeare’s fictional wife, Agnes, a devotee to nature and all its powers, who sinks into depression after the death of her son. She’s resentful of her husband, too, whose city business kept him away while it occurred. (Men and their little projects—they’ll never understand.) But wait: William’s new creation has the town talking, and when Agnes witnesses its familiarly-named protagonist struggling with and accepting death, she knows what it’s really about. Maybe there’s not such a gulf between the endless rhythms of nature and the timeless compassion of great art—and, phew, maybe husbands have feelings after all. Of course, to the extent that this movie actually believes that Hamlet is a convoluted, masculine attempt to grieve, it’s wrong. But notice, as Hamlet dies, the audience’s reaction. Not only Agnes but everyone reaches out to comfort him: watching this grand tragedy, they all feel something; they all know, as she does, what it’s really about, and they’re all wrong, each in different ways. The masterpieces hold everything and everyone; no interpretation has authority; like nature, they belong to all of us. A celebration of that shouldn’t be missed, so I place this film among the year’s best—an emotional and meditative modern achievement.
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