Hamnet (2025) review

While working as a Latin tutor to pay off his abusive father's debts, William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) becomes enamored with unwed forest lady Agnes (Jessie Buckley), she gets pregnant, they're forced to marry, he runs off to London to work on his plays and she births fraternal twins Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes) ... but Hamnet dies at age eleven, which greatly affects his parents.  There's been plenty of speculation and debate as to whether or not Hamnet's passing influenced the writing of Hamlet, and though several scholars doubt it, this interpretation (based on a book by Maggie O'Farrell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao) assumes it did, but what's unfortunate is that it basically exists as an extended eulogy for a little boy the audience doesn't learn much about, complete with abundant foreshadowing (and a bunch of symbolism).  The pleas for sympathy are overbearing - Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" (from his album The Blue Notebooks) is played at the finale to really crank up the waterworks - and Buckley's asked to do some capital-A "Acting," which involves weeping, moaning and cackling all at the same time.  Also, since it's a movie involving the greatest writer in the English language to ever live, shouldn't it feature more of him and his creative process?  And is it totally necessary to experience personal loss in order to produce great works of art?  Likely not, methinks.