Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal Portray Heartbroken Couple Navigating Grief in ‘Hamnet’

Little is known about William Shakespeare’s life, and even less about his wife Agnes’. But Hamnet, based on the best-selling novel by Maggie O’Farrell, fills in the gaps. Will (Paul Mescal) is hired to tutor two boys in his hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon, but his duties don’t prevent him from falling hard for their wild, “witchy” older sister Agnes (Jessie Buckley).

They marry and quickly have three children, Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet. Will leaves them behind in Stratford for better prospects in London, only making periodic visits back home. When Judith catches bubonic plague, her kindhearted twin nurses her, refusing to leave her side, even as he sickens too. In the end, she survives and Hamnet dies.

A devastated Will channels his heartbreak into a new work, the tragic tale of a doomed Danish prince named…Hamlet. Agnes, who’s equally shattered by Hamnet’s death, travels to the capital for the play’s debut, an event that proves cathartic for both her and her husband.

Shakespeare fans will love the (fictional) story of the playwright’s personal life, but Buckley and Mescal’s devastating portrayal of heartbroken parents, and the different ways they deal with grief, give Hamnet universal appeal.

Hamnet | In theaters Wednesday, Nov 26 PG-13