Hamnet (2025)

Hamnet is one of the films being talked about for Oscar consideration but even before that there was something about this film that made me want to check it out. The film tells the story of the relationship between Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley) and Willam Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). The film is directed by Chloé Zhao who did a great job of directing Nomadland and then almost undid that good will with one of the dullest Marvel films Eternals. Thankfully Zhao is back on good form with this film. One thing that I was concerned about was that it was going to involve William Shakespeare and I must confess that I think that Shakespeare is overrated. The way people drool over the way he speaks is bizarre to me. His stories are very good but people seem to value the words and style of his speech over everything else.

The thing to note is that Paul Mescal is not really in the first half and Jessie Buckley gets to own the film but once Hamnet dies then he becomes part of the story. Jessie Buckley is brilliant and she would totally deserve her Oscar and Bafta wins should she get them. Hopefully The Bride doesn’t Norbit her Oscar chances. The grief that she shows when Hamnet dies is something very harrowing and hard to ignore. Even if you are not a parent you would have to be made of very stern stuff not to be moved by those scenes. Jacobi Jupe was very good as Hamnet and this is the second film in succession that I have seen a very good child actor (Shannon Mahina Gorman in Rental Family being the other example). Part of the reason why his death is so powerful is that you end up liking him as he becomes the man of the house when William is away in London. The way that he also wants to get his sickness passed on to him to cheat death is such a selfless action that it would be hard to really hate him for the borderline stupid action that it is.

My only real issue with the film is that it assumes you know the story of William Shakespeare and his personal story (I didn’t) so the film does introduce characters. I know that this is a true story in the loosest sense of the word but the people around are true but were complete strangers to me. The problem starts straight away when we see Joe Alwyn sitting in a chair not knowing what his character's name is or that he is playing Agnes' brother. This little tidbit isn't revealed until the next scene a couple of minutes later. Another example is when Shakespeare's father disappears after William stands up to him and he’s never mentioned.The woman who is like a mother figure to Agnes but isn’t appears at the beginning but when she returns about an hour later looking completely different (at least a decade has passed) I had forgotten who she was.

Despite the issues with the screenplay and the introduction of characters, this is easily my favourite film of the year (although that list is only three films long at the moment). The performances are really strong with Buckley and Mescal deserving top praise but the script does let it down. Zhao does a great job with directing as the house looks amazing and the surrounding woodland looks magical. There are some shots where the camera just sits far away and allows the story to unfold and for us to observe that and in this era of modern filmmaking, its a rare thing to just be able to appreciate what you are seeing on screen. 

Eternals (2021)

Its fair to say that Marvel have rested on their laurels over the last few years so the idea of them trying to do something different is something that got me curious. What also added to the expectations that I had was the director. I really enjoyed Nomadland and thought that Chloe Zhao deserved her Oscar. So it was disappointing that she has gone from Nomadland to Eternals.

Gemma Chan plays Sersi and she becomes the new leader and she had no presence to her at all. She was never given the journey to get her from cowardly lion to brave leader and as a result I never felt like she was someone to be taken seriously. Richard Madden plays a legally different version of Superman and was the only one who reacted the way you would expect when their truth is revealed. He became the physical villain to stop Sersi and when this happens the character became interesting because sadly up until this point Madden is very dull and whilst he has better screen presence than Chan, he still isn't someone that I would build a film around. Angelina Jolie is clearly there to pick up a paycheck. She never feels like she’s part of the action and has her Jekyll and Hyde character. She got to do some action scenes but we knew she could do it because of films like Tomb Raider but Thena feels like a side character. Barry Keoghan was underused as Druig. It seemed like his power was too powerful and like Captain Marvel got sidelined until his power was useful. Lauren Ridloff was good as the legally different Flash. As a deaf character it felt like she had some freshness and it was a shame that she got sidelined until the final act. I did think the romance between Makkari and Druig was underused to the point where I wondered why they bothered including it. Lia McHugh was the only character that seemed to have any development as not-Maisie Williams. She decides to follow not-Superman just because she fancied him and then gets rewarded with mortality. Kumail Nanjani (Kingo) is perhaps the best in this film because he brings a nice dose of comedy to the film. He is helped with his sidekick Harish Patel (Karun) who seems to whip out a camcorder at every opportunity.

Ultimately the problem with this film is that everyone involved is taking it too seriously. They don't inject much humour into the characters and there were long periods where a bit of humor would have been much appreciated. Also there is the fact that there are too many characters. If there had been three or four then it might have worked but there was way too many. People appear and then disappear and it's hard to really care about them when they spend a fraction of the movie on screen. There were way too many flashbacks which don't really add anything apart from the one where not-Superman kills Ajak.

I was bored by Eternals. The film had absolutely no right being over two and a half hours long. I nearly nodded off at one point and felt like the endless flashbacks could have been cut out (with the exception of the revelation one) and the film would have been a snapier film. There were parts of this film that reminded me of Nomadland but when the action scenes came, they seemed like generic action scenes and not the sort of thing that Chloe Zhao would come up with. Like most Marvel films, this probably wont be the last time we see some of the characters. The line from Kit Harrington about his character’s history being complicated was clearly meant to be a tease so I suppose time will tell whether it was worth it but this has to be one of the worst Marvel films I have seen since Captain Marvel and at least that film was shorter.