'A film that yearns to be on the big screen': Everyman Harrogate Film Review - Hamnet
Going in, the one thing I really knew was that Jessie Buckley was meant to have given a sensational performance here and she had me transfixed the entire time.
Her introduction set her up as this almost ethereal being, wise in the ways of the forest and with a hawk by her side.
She managed to linger within the silences, her eyes wide and hovering over her on screen counterpart, surveying his worth.
Her pain was ever present and the release that a piece of art could give her was palpable, and we could watch Buckley in real time translate her character coming to terms with the past.
Paul Mescal also deserves a lot of praise for his work though too.
The film definitely didn’t centre around him but he made superb use of his time when he was present.
The chemistry he had with his family was wonderful and he so powerfully built his feelings of guilt, grief, and distance, and his releases of these tensions down the line were rife with a stained paternal care.
Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet was incredible also, providing one of the best child actor performances I have ever seen.
The journey we’re taken is something really incredible, conveying how well written the script is.
The smallest, most insignificant scenes and lines of dialogue would later bloom into vibrant bouquets of catharsis, tying together all of the film’s themes in a deeply emotional way.
The editing and cinematography was sumptuous and absorbing, and paired effortlessly with a score that adopted a lot of restraint - only deploying itself to drift the emotion of any given moment to stratospheric heights.
Hamnet is a film to feel, a gentle story to explore, a reflection of what it is to be a human, to be in love, and climaxes in such a phenomenal way.
It was an excellent film. A film that yearns to be on the big screen for the fact that you can have an audience with you, to share a sense of community and belonging, and to be lost in the magic of it all.
Visit https://www.everymancinema.com/film-listing/315003-hamnet/ to see when the film is showing.
Rating: 9/10