By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Friday 9 January 2026 on its UK release date RUNTIME: 126 minutes

Jessie Buckley deserves all the Best Actress Oscar attention she is attracting for this showstopping role as Agnes Hathaway, a woman renowned as a ‘forest witch’ who marries budding author William Shakespeare.

• Read on for reasons including how Hamnet offers explosive Oscar-worthy performances

This largely fictional story is based on a hugely popular 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell which focuses on the death of the couple’s son, the titular Hamnet, and how it influenced arguably Shakespeare’s best loved work.

Two years ago we saw the theatrical version of Hamnet and felt strangely unmoved by what should be an emotional rollercoaster and Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao, who also edited this film and co-wrote the screenplay, ramps up the undeniable heartbreak at this story’s core to its improvement but opens it up to over manipulation criticism.

We last saw Buckley on the stage in her Olivier Award-winning role in Cabaret, at The Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse, where she was so good we predicted ‘this will be the role that will catapault her to superstardom’.

But it’s as Agnes, an unconventional woman who is so close to nature that she sleeps in the woods, befriends a hawk and makes remedies from plants, that she deserves to go 1 better than her only previous Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for The Lost Daughter.

Who can forget her desperation as child Judith succumbs to a life threatening fever or her animal-like, howling grief where son Hamnet offers himself up to death in twin Judith’s place?

Paul Mescal (A Streetcar Named Desire, Almedia Theatre) offers strong support to Buckley as Shakespeare in a role expanded from the book but we weren’t quite so moved by him here as we were earlier this week by his film The History Of Sound.

He does, however, earn all the Oscar buzz he’s getting for this role – he too was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 2023 for the superlative Aftersun – and he remains 1 of the world’s most sensitive actors.

If you’re a fan of Hamlet, you will doubtless be moved by the film’s conclusion as Agnes ventures to London to see her husband’s play as he performs as the character’s ghostly father.

It’s a denouement that reminded us of The Motive And The Cue which also draws too heavily on the beloved subject material it is seeking to draw emotional parallels with.

However, if you’re looking for a film with a central couple at the top of their acting game Hamnet offers explosive Oscar-worthy performances.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Hamnet
• Have you seen Jessie Buckley or Paul Mescal before and what did you think of them? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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