But as it unfolded, I was proved quite wrong. Enjoying this tale didn't rely on knowing anything about His Bardship at all! While the first hour did occasionally drag, the excellent performances from the whole cast carried me through. The story is far more about family, abandonment, grief and the fragility of existence in an era of perilous childbirth and rigid social values.
The first thing I appreciated was the atmosphere. Right from the off, the sets made the rural world feel alive. A family living in the middle of nowhere amidst mud and hard work, the courtship rituals of a tiny rural community, the mystical/superstition threading through Agnes’s (Buckley - Fargo, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Men, Women Talking, Wicked Little Letters, Fingernails) 'connection with nature' - it all has an earthy quality. It looked remarkably like life at The Weald & Downland Living Museum in Singleton, West Sussex, which I know so well. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if parts were filmed there.
The story follows Will (later revealed as the Shakespeare) and Agnes. Will, played by Paul Mescal (Aftersun, All of Us Strangers), is a local tutor with ambitions to be a writer. Agnes is a fierce, intuitive young woman with a reputation for her mystical connection to the forest. When they meet, he falls instantly in love. She is more cagey, fearing that those around her will wildly object to the match. Which, of course, they do.
The chemistry between the characters - and the actors - is clear to see. They are deeply in love, and the only thing standing between them is Will’s ambition. He sees moving to London, the heartbeat of the art world, as a necessity. She wants to remain in her rural home, in touch with the land. As time leaps forward, they have three children - an older girl, Susanna, and twins, Hamnet and Judith. We are told early on that the names Hamnet and Hamlet were interchangeable at the time. When Will heads to London, the family is left to navigate the complications of a long-distance marriage.
Then we reach the tragedy that eventually inspired the play Hamlet. It is a story of a father-son relationship ruined by death. When pestilence arrives, the tone shifts remarkably. The acting reaches a new level as Hamnet falls victim to the Plague (in a roundabout way I won't spoil, as it carries immense emotional baggage regarding his bond with his twin sister). Emily Watson (Testament of Youth, Breaking the Waves, Apple Tree Yard) steps up as Will’s mother, and the audience is treated to an acting masterclass as the family moves from heartbreak to total devastation.
Will is as devastated as Agnes, yet he makes the unpopular decision to return to London. Torn between passion and grief, he feels 'the show must go on' and sets out to write Hamlet in memory of his son - an attempt to fix the unfixable through art it seems. The entire second half of the film is drenched in the family’s grief until Agnes finally travels to see the play for herself. I’ll leave you to soak up that ending for yourselves.
I haven't read Maggie O’Farrell’s book, on which this is based, but it’s clear that while much is fictitious, it is rooted in the recorded facts of the 1590s. There is very little to dislike here, even for an ignoramus like me! The direction by Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) was great. It moved with a fluidity that kept the dual timelines clear and compelling.
The music also deserves a mention - the use of Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight was haunting and emotional, providing the heartbeat of the film. With hindsight, perhaps my 'blank slate' status allowed me to approach this from an emotional place rather than an academic one. It is a beautiful, haunting and hopeful film about the invisible people in history - wives and children left behind - while famous men change the world. You don’t need to be a scholar to be moved by it, you just need to have loved and lost.
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