This is based on the book Hamnet, which I have not read, about William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway — or Agnes, apparently, per some documents — and the effects of the death of their son Hamnet. Who did apparently inspire Hamlet, in part? Very creative, Bill. Personally I prefer the actual TRUE version of how that play happened. And now that I know this is based in a true story, I can’t really complain that Hamnet sounds more like an old-school Hamilton fan site. SIGH. I guess all that’s left is to watch this thing.
Or perhaps not! Yet again we are promised harrowing childbirth scenes and visceral grief. Variety’s subhed on its review says, “It’s impossible to overstate how radical — and for some, no doubt unwatchable — the ‘Nomadland’ director’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel turned out.” I honestly found that review to be semi-insufferable word salad, though. And it includes the assertion that Terence Malick “is perhaps the most feminine director of all.” IN A REVIEW OF A MOVIE DIRECTED BY A WOMAN. It is in a paragraph in which he compares Zhao’s approach to Malick’s, but reads either INSANE or as if the writer imbues an assumption of masculinity into the very word “director,” which sure is a choice.
