Movie Review - Hamnet

Director: Chloé Zhao
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 125 minutes
Year: 2025
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, Emily Watson, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe
 
Description: In late 16^th-century England, Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a healer sensitive to the world around her, builds a home with William (Paul Mescal), a local tudor and aspiring playwright. As their lives fracture, they are tested by distance, silence, and grief.
 
Review: The film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel “Hamnet” by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao is a rare example of an adaptation that not only understands the soul of the source material but also amplifies it. It is a visually stunning and emotionally devastating portrait of grief, love, and the transcendent power of art.

Although Paul Mescal portrays a fragile yet powerful William Shakespeare (never named until the very end), this is unmistakably Jessie Buckley’s film. As Agnes, she is the emotional anchor; a woman with a powerful connection to nature. Zhao wisely chooses not to show the rise of the famous playwright in London, but to focus on the raw reality of family life in Stratford. The chemistry between Buckley and Mescal is palpable and makes the impending tragedy all the more painful.

The cinematography by Łukasz Żal is nothing short of sublime. He captures the English countryside in 1596 with a sensory richness that immediately transport the viewer into the mud and sunlight of the Elizabethan era. The scenes in which the plague slowly creeps into the household are portrayed with a suffocating tension. Max Richters’s music enhances the melancholic atmosphere.

The absolute highlight is the finale, in which the film shows an indescribably personal loss – the death of eleven-year-old Hamnet – is transformed into the universal masterpiece Hamlet. Zhao succeeds in giving familiar monologues from the play a new, deeply moving meaning that will bring even the most stoic viewers to tears.

“Hamnet” is a tearjerker of the highest order, but its more than that. It’s a story of loss and the aftermath of this, how people grief differently. The narrative structure of the middle section is somewhat uneven, but the emotional impact of the final scene more than makes up for it. I have only just read the book (which I gave a 5-star rating) and it always makes me happy to see a director succeeding into translating it to film. Beautiful film and a well-deserved Academy Award for Jessie Buckley.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

20s Movie Review - The Courier

Director: Dominic Cooke
Genre: Drama/ Mystery
Runtime: 112 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley

Description: Businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) is asked by a Russian source to try help put an and to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2024 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 27: A FILM ABOUT A HISTORICAL EVENT
 
Review: Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky is a true nationalist. But when he sees the plans of party leader Khruschev, he can no longer remain silent. Penkovsky manages to smuggle a message into the American embassy: he wants to defect. In cooperation with the British secret service MI6, a plan is hatched to have a businessman contact his high-raking mole in Moscow. Completely inexperienced, Greville Wynne, is sent on a business mission. And before he knows it, he is smuggling secret information from Penkovsky to London on a regular basis.

The titulat courier Greville Wynne is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. Always a solid actor, and no different in “The Courier”. The film itself is also a rock-solid historical drama. The film never really excels, but there is certainly nothing bad about it. In fact, the story is incredibly compelling, and anyone with an interest in the Cold War cannot deny that this is a fine addition to the rich repertoire of spy stories about that era. Especially since Wynne is an amateur.

“The Courier” captivates from beginning to end and you learn something as well. It’s not earth-shattering, but a really good, solid film if you have any interest in this period in history.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

20s Movie Review - The Lost Daughter

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Genre: Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 121 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ed Harris

Description: A women’s (Olivia Colman) beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past.

Review: At the last minute of 2021, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal comes to Netflix with her directorial debut “The Lost Daughter”. An intelligent film about motherhood and responsibilities. It’s a remarkably nuanced film whose provocative message will stay with you for days to come.
Leda is enjoying some time off on a Greek island. While on the beach, she is relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet. Her oasis of calm changes when an American family, with screaming children, noisily takes over the beach.
When she meets a young woman called Nina and her daughter Elena, it brings back painful, unprocessed memories for Leda. Memories of Leda’s own time as a mother of two young daughters, Bianca and Martha. In flashbacks sprinkled throughout the film, we see a young Leda combining her work and studies with motherhood and demanding relationship. And those worlds collide more often than not.
Olivia Colman once again puts in a masterful actin performance. But Jessie Buckley’s portrayal of the younger version of Leda also deserves high praise. Seamlessly, the two seem like the same person with a twenty year age difference.  
The title “The Lost Daughter” suggest that a child disappears and the film becomes a quest to find the girl. This is true, but it’s only a small part of the film. The incident is a clever diversion for the film’s real protagonists: atypical mothers. Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut does not unfold as a mystery detective thriller at all. “The Lost Daughter” is a character study of women struggling with motherhood and the expectations and responsibilities that come with it. Women who must choose for themselves. As selfish as that may seem, it is far from incomprehensible.
Leda is also, to a certain extent, not a sympathetic character at all. Not everyone is made for motherhood, and children can be an oppressive responsibility. Leda describes herself throughout the film as an unnatural mother. Her façade of difference and self-reliance makes Leda a complex character whose unpredictable behavior keeps her constantly intrigued. In young mother Nina, with her always crying daughter, she finds recognition. A recognition she has hidden away to avoid having to face her life decisions.
“The Lost Daughter” is a unique film because the self-evident maternal instinct is turned on it head. The film is somewhat uncomfortable to watch, because Leda is such a complex character and she is very clear about her boundaries, and the situations she is put in (or often puts herself in) can be very uncomfortable to witness. For her directorial debut, Maggie Gyllenhaal has passed with flying colors. It’s a very interesting watch.  

Rating: 4/ 5

Movie Review - I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Director: Charlie Kaufman
Genre: Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 134 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis, Guy Boyd, Oliver Platt

Description: Full of misgivings, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) travels with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his parents’ (Toni Collette, David Thewlis) secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.

Review: It is a pity that “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” will not be shown in theaters. Without distraction from your phone or other domestic circumstances you can totally immerse yourself in this movie. Because of the surreal story, the beautiful images and the enormous amount of details, which you would more easily miss when you’re watching it on your TV. On the other hand, the release on Netflix means easy access and being able to watch a new movie in the comforts of your own home. Charlie Kaufman’s detailed look and worries about aging, mortality, love and connections between people (or the lack thereof) is not an easy watch and surely not for the mainstream audience.
Charlie Kaufman is known for his creative and more surreal movies. Jut look at “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”. So, if you know and like these films, you are used to his style. But that doesn’t necessary mean you will love this film as well. I think this movie will get a lot of mixed reviews.
“I’m Thinking of Ending Things” seems to have a very simple story. A young woman is going to meet the parents of her new boyfriend Jake, who live on a remote farm. Late at night they go back home by car. But from the beginning something strange is going on. She things about ending it, and sometimes Jake reacts as if he could hear that thought.
Reality is increasingly being challenged here. The conversations they do have out loud vary from profound to extremely pretentious, from poetic to uncomfortable. Both the uncomfortable and the beautiful moments are enhanced by the colorful, claustrophobic cinematography.
It is thanks to Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons as the young couple, who are able to convey the existential fear that underlies Kaufman’s work. Toni Collette and David Thewlis are very strong as Jake’s parents, in whose house the film becomes totally surreal. During dinner, what’s on the table changes several times, just like the haircut, ages and the name of the young woman. Is her name Lucy, Louisa, Amy?
She also starts to doubt it. And then suddenly Jake’s father is very old and demented, after which the young woman meets an equally young mother, who is cleaning up Jake’s toys. In Jake’s old room there is an urn with the ashes of his dog, while the young woman has just stroked it. Is she losing grip on reality?
“I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is like a labyrinth, in which everything is interwove, but at the same time collapse like a house of cards. The existential uncertainty of existence is carried through such an extent that we can go no longer be sure whether we are absorbed in the young woman’s confusion, or whether she doesn’t exist at all and is a projection of Jake’s failed attempts to make a real connection with a woman. “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” invites to be watch several times, although that will not be easy (since it’s a slow burn) and I doubt it will lead to complete certainty and understanding. The only thing we can be sure of is that Charlie Kaufman has again made a beautiful, melancholic film, even if we don’t fully understand it or can really explain what we just witnessed. The average viewer will probably hate this film. If you can open yourself up to this surreal story, you will appreciate it and see the beauty of it.

Rating: 4 / 5