Hamnet

Every year a movie or two manages to make me tear up.

I’m not the kind of person that will cry at everything. But when something deeply moves me, my eyes will well up and maybe a tear or two streaks down my face.

Very rarely though does a film come along that breaks me. Very rarely does a film cause me to aggressively weep in response to what it does deep in my soul. Very rarely are my tears so plentiful that they start soaking my shirt.

Hamnet broke me.

I don’t say that to make you think that you will have the same experience with the film or set the expectation that you will. You very well may, but you also may not. I hate when you go into something with the expectation that you are going to cry your eyes out. So please don’t hear me saying that is the case here.

The reason I say that Hamnet broke me is not because of how sad I was. It’s because of how beautifully rendered its ideas were & how deeply those ideas resonated with me & my experience in the world.

There are plenty of moments in Hamnet that are painstakingly sad. Moments that it almost feels like the movie is trying to make you cry. Yet, I didn’t tear up a single time during those moments. The moments that broke me were the subtle ones.

They weren’t tears of sadness, really. They were tears of joy. Tears about the power of art & its ability to help us navigate this dark, twisted world.

Much more to say about what those exact moments are, but I’ll wait until the film is out in the world to share those. I’m also fascinated by how in conversation this is with another film this year & one from last year.

Man, what a movie!!!!!!!