“Hamnet”: A Review in Quatrains

by Chris Stewart 02.2026

In reckn'ing with the loss behind her art/

Chloe Zhao's estimable talent shows

Ambition which is to be admired/

Even as her chief goal does not quite know -

Where to place its power as humans sway/

Their hands lifted to the cause of seeing 

Through death itself into a greater truth/

The beauty? Quite real. It's power? Fleeting.

Based on a beloved book whose story/

Reveals the private loss behind the play

Known best to us as a tale of tragic glory/

A royal Dane who reckons with his fate.

So now we see the courtship and the marriage/

Of Shakespeare and a woman of the woods

The symmetry and ardour in their bearing/

The child that they would raise if but they could.

***

Much championed as a festival delight/

The film is sure to touch more than a few

Well laid out - it is sadly rather slight/

Before its gorgeous final flare of truth.

Max Richter's score, familiar to hear/

From Arrival, from many another scene

Reaches to lift and transcend a story/

Well told but mechanical in its dreams.

Mescal and Buckley as the bard and bride/

Are perhaps too finely tuned to their pain

As Shakespeare and his witchy and keen wife/

A promise of a riskier film, in vain.

So while praise is deserved and the setting, lush/

And for some the impact will cut deeply/

Ms. Zhao's polished presentation left me

Feeling that it all came about neatly.

***

Young performers are observed so closely/

That their peril is profound but often

Laid out to guide each choice, dire or holy/

Of their caretakers as they rage, and soften.

Łukasz Żal shoots natural light, quite the look/

The textures and the environments sing

But what worked in Maggie O'Farrel's book/

Seems to rush its conclusion on the screen

As a viewing experience it sings/

Though its seams are visible twice or more

And the call to feel and be swept and dream/

Comes to near to wonder, but can't find the shore.

It should be said that these are mild notes/

Subtracting from a work of high artistry

It demands a great deal, and offers hope/

It achieves a lavish tone genuinely.

***

This is a film worth recommending, still/

It is tangible, earthy, and complex

And those who are full-swept up in its spell/

Will dwell in spaces they won't soon forget.

What next, now for Ms. Zhao, twice Oscar-winning?

A superb eye, and a talent I admire/

One hopes she bares her teeth with her next outing/

Oh, to think where she will next cast her eye.

In recommending a similar piece/

It bears mentioning a film called Bright Star

Jane Campion's 2009 treatise/

On Keats and Fanny Brawne's courtship, and more

With such intelligence and such quiet/

Much is achieved in the realm of the real

And how patient and honest the portrait/

Of affection that Bright Star does reveal.