Hamnet

Spoilers Aplenty: A brilliant film about death, grief, and the artist's expression of the personal made universal. Never before have I seen a movie where someone witnesses an artist's expression of their own life experience, that transforms into something that we all share. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are both terrific as barely socialized, nearly feral people with no place for themselves in 16th Century England. I also received Hamnet as a story of the birthplace of the modern marriage. Agnes's marriage would seem no different than what many practice here 400 years later:

• Agnes knows her destiny is to have children
• Agnes romances/seduces William and gets herself pregnant
• Their families would not allow them to marry otherwise
• Agnes encourages her husband to leave the house to follow his passion for work
• Agnes is happy to be the sole parent... until she isn't
• Agnes eventually comes to resent his absence from the household

The transformative finale finds Agnes understanding that her husband also has feelings, that he struggles to share, and his only true medium for emotional expression is through art. I kinda assumed this would be a feminist-themed movie, with Agnes going on a character arc, so I was surprised when her life lesson ended up being "mothers should try harder to understand what their husbands are going through, they feel just as deeply as you do"

At the same time, she ingests her first experience with drama, an art form she has never experienced before, heck, I'm not certain if she's ever seen any art? Who wants to tell Agnes her first ever play is the best one ever made, and it's all downhill from here? 

This movie is a famous tear-jerker, I cried plenty. At one point I was about to take off my glasses to dab my eyes again, when I stopped myself "wait, I want to see this part first" My Stub Hubby grade: A