There are many good movies in the world. Not all of them are movies I will enjoy, personally. Hamnet is definitely one of those movies.
It’s based on an historical fiction novel that tells the tale of Shakespeare’s family and how personal tragedy might have inspired Shakespeare when he wrote Hamlet. On the one hand, there are definite aspects of that premise that ought to appeal to me. Anything adaptation-related is something I’m already interested in by default. To have an adaptation of a novel that’s focused on how real life might in turn be adapted into a play? That’s definitely intriguing to me.
But in practice, this movie is a prolonged exploration of suffering. It’s not quite the same suffering as The Revenant from a few years ago, but that’s just because no one in the movie gets mauled by a bear, and it doesn’t take place in winter.
I generally watch movies to escape. I don’t mind them to be about serious subjects, and I don’t mind movies that are sad when they need to be. But I don’t like them when the sole purpose just seems to be exploring sadness. I know there are many people who will beg to differ about that being the case here with Hamnet. But it’s not really a discussion I feel like having.
It’s well made. Well acted. The plot is good. And it’s not a movie I enjoyed or ever want to watch again. I will say the ending was well done and moving, so there’s that, but there’s too much to get through to make it worth the price of the experience.