Tag: loss

HAMNET – Review

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in director Chloé Zhao’s HAMNET, a Focus Features release. Credit: Agata Grzybowska / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal give striking performances in Chloe Zhao’s lushly beautiful, romantic and heartbreaking tale of William Shakespeare’s marriage to his wife Anne and the death of their young son Hamnet, whose loss led the Bard to write perhaps his great play “Hamlet.” As a title card at the film’s start tells us, the names Hamnet and Hamlet were considered essentially the same, alternate ways of spelling it. In Zhao’s drama, Shakespeare’s mysterious wife is renamed Agnes. As little is actually known about Shakespeare’s wife Anne and their marriage, which gives director Chloe Zhao free rein to be inventive. Love, death, pain and hope are the themes.

The film was inspired by Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel “Hamnet” and written for the screen by director Zhao and the author, the resulting drama is more Chloe Zhao’s vision than a true adaptation of the book. Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao proved herself a master of powerful imagery framing human questing and connection in NOMADLAND, and brings those gifts to this tale as well, but in this case in a more intimate way, of two people falling in love and having a family.

While the real William Shakespeare was 18 when he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the director chose to ignore that age gap in casting Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. In the film, William Shakespeare is a young struggling Latin tutor, now doing farm work for neighboring families to help out his parents who had fallen into debt. Anne, now Agnes, is the strong-willed oldest daughter of a more well-off family, where Will is doing some manual labor. Smitten on first sight, the young tutor offers to teach the family’s younger children, as a way to be closer, in order to woo Agnes.

Beautiful, wild, independent Agnes, for her part, is less keen on young Will, but he wins her over with poetry and persistence. Despite opposition by both families (with an excellent Emily Watson as Will’s severe mother), they wed and have three children, oldest daughter Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and fraternal twins, Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe).

The drama follows their marriage and the launch of Shakespeare’s career in London, while wife Agnes and the children stay behind in the English countryside. Their bond is strong but nothing is more tragic for any couple than the loss of a child, and it has a transformative effect on their lives and relationship.

HAMNET is visually stunning throughout and particularly magical in the early portions. Period costumes and props are perfectly done. The setting is often a wild English countryside of old forests haunted by secrets and ancient Celtic magic. The film ranges from that wild, natural world beginning to the London stage of the Globe Theater where the play born of tragedy takes form.

Jessie Buckley is particularly moving in this drama, as a wild soul who seems as much a child of forest as anything human. There are references that her true mother was a forest-dweller, with all the magical implications of that, and the daughter is only partly of this staid village world, hints often presented in vivid, visual form. Zhao blends the visual and the dramatic well in creating these characters and their lives but she is aided greatly by Jessie Buckley’s strong performance. Paul Mescal’s William Shakespeare comes across as more grounded but firmly determined to have this wild woman and to build their lives.

HAMNET does not try to answer all questions about Shakespeare’s marriage or the creation of “Hamlet.” The film is, of course, romantic but in a human, passionate and believable way, rather than a conventional film romance. Tragedy breaks that lovely dream, throwing the characters in conflict, as they each grapple with grief in their own ways. Unlike many films this year, this one focuses purely on the personal and the individual rather than the large world, putting the experience of love and of grief at its center. The stunning natural-world photography suggests something epic and enduring, but real focus of this drama are the human emotions, of love and heartbreak, from which comes the creation of something that endures for the ages.

HAMNET opens in theaters on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

THE FRIEND – Review

Naomi Watts and Bill Murray in Bleecker Street’s THE FRIEND. Credit: Bleecker Street

Bill Murray and Naomi Watts star as best friends in THE FRIEND, a comedy-drama about a friend leaving his beloved pet, a Great Dane named Apollo, to his best friend. The friend didn’t let the bestie know about this plan, leaving the friend both grieving and trying to find a place for a dog that is not allowed in her no-pets apartment.

There even seems some doubt about whether that was really ever said out loud. But it is what the friend’s second ex-wife, who has the dog now, tells her he wanted. Naomi Watts plays Iris, the friend who is left the dog when her best friend Walter (Bill Murray) suddenly dies.

This smart, human comedy/drama is set in New York among writers, academics and literary types but it finds common ground with anyone who has lost a friend and maybe had to address the question of what to do with a pet left behind.

Naomi Watts and Bill Murray gives excellent, warm and funny performances as these two friends. THE FRIEND is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Sigrid Nunez. It is skillfully directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who also adapted the novel for the screen. The film also has a wonderful role for Ann Dowd, who plays Iris’ neighbor and friend Marjorie.

The death happens fairly early in the film but we do get a strong sense of their lives and their friendship before that, through many flashbacks to fill out the details, plus a pivotal fantasy sequence where Iris talks to her dead friend Walter about the dog and his death.

Iris, who teaches writing at a college, has been friends with Walter ever since she took his writing class back in college days. Walter is a bon vivant and a writer, a literary figure holding forth at intellectual dinner parties with various tales, including a magical one about finding this beautiful black-and-white Great Dane alone in a park when Walter was out jogging. The dog is poised on the crest of a hill, a perfect picture and Walter just has to approach him. The dog is friendly but has no collar and no micro-chip to identify his owner. Walter takes him into hi brownstone home and names him Apollo. This tale comes out in bits and pieces, in repeated tellings throughout the film, just like some friends might repeat favorite stories that are meaningful in their lives.

Walter may be devoted to his dog but he’s had three wives and numerous girlfriends over the years. He can be entertaining and wonderful, but he can also be irritating, with a sharp tongue and a tendency to always put himself in the best light. In short, your typically flawed human being.

When Walter suddenly dies, Iris and his friends gather for his memorial. There is a bit of an undercurrent of resentment towards Walter but they are there anyway. At the memorial, Iris reconnects with Walter’s first wife, Elaine (Carla Gugino), who was a friend who had been in that same class where Iris first met Walter. Second wife Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) gives the eulogy, while the third and current wife, now widow, Tuesday (Constance Wu) quietly dabs tears off to one side, surrounded by those consoling her. Barbara asks Iris to call her next week, for something important about Walter

The something important turns out to be the dog, Apollo (who gets a credit, played by a dog named Bing). Iris doesn’t want a dog (she’s a cat person) and besides, pets are not allowed in her rent-controlled apartment. Nonetheless, she gives in and brings the giant dog home, with reassurances from Barbara about how well behaved and well trained he is.

It’s not true, of course, which she learns as soon as she smuggles the dog into her apartment, and even before, when the dog balks at getting into the building’s tiny elevator, forcing them to take the stairs.

Inheriting a Great Dane might be a problem for anyone but in New York City, with rent-controlled apartments with no pets allowed rules, it is even more challenging. What’s more, unlike many cities, New York isn’t very pet-friendly, especially for a Great Dane. This isn’t a purse-sized pooch you could just smuggle in somewhere.

On top of that, Iris is supposed to be working on a book about Walter, based on his letters, that her publisher is eager to get out quickly. Walter’s grown daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon), whom he just met recently, is supposed to be helping but the young Val is not as reliable as she could be.

Struggling to get it all done, Iris sometimes finds herself taking Apollo along on her errands. She is pretty indignant about the no-animals policies she encounters, and routinely expects the guards and doormen charged with enforcing those rules to make an exception for her. She is a bit entitled, and not above violating the rules. Surprisingly, she generally get away with this behavior, sometimes even getting an apology for doormen or front desk security whose job it is to enforce the rule for doing their jobs, rather than calls to security or the police.

Over the course of the film, Iris tries to find a new home for Apollo but mostly looks at Great Dane-only rescues, even signing up for a waiting list for one in Michigan. She does not seem as serious about finding a home for Apollo as she claims, despite what she says and the challenges of keeping him. At the same time, Apollo is clearly depressed and grieving, and his grieving even interferes with Iris’s own grief over the loss of the friend she could talk to endlessly over anything.

As Iris goes through the motions for finding a new home for Apollo, and copes with her apartment’s super, Hektor’s (Felix Solis) repeated reminders that he cannot be there, we see flashbacks of her friendship with Walter.

There is a lot that is very New York and very literary in this film, which will appeal to those of us who love New York and all things books, but it may wear eventually on those who don’t share those sentiments. However, late in the film, there is a turn, as Iris hits a crisis point, after she gets an eviction notice. That turning point opens the story up into a more universal tale of friendship, loss, and grieving, as well as revealing details about Walter and his death.

Even if the New York or academic/literary starts to wear, know you will be rewarded if you wait for this last chapter. No spoilers, but the last part is worth it, as the film opens up into something more universally human experience, perhaps even profound and something we are all likely to experience in some fashion at some point in life.

THE FRIEND opens Friday, Apr. 4, nationwide and at St. Louis area theaters Ronnie’s 20, St. Charles 18, Arnold 14, Town Square 12, and B & B Wentzville Tower 12

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN – Review

Dana Canedy (ChantŽe Adams) and Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan) in Columbia Pictures’ JOURNAL FOR JORDAN.

Denzel Washington directs this true-story based drama about love and loss, starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams as a mismatched couple who meet and fall in love. Career military man Charles and Dana Canedy, an editor at the New York Times, who meet and unexpectedly fall in love, and the journal of fatherly advice the soldier leaves behind for his son. The film opens with a single mother, Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams), in New York struggling to balance her high-pressure career and the responsibilities of caring for her toddler son Jordan while grappling with grief. Over the course of the two-track film, we see Jordan grow up along side flashbacks to his parents’ romance.

The film is based on Dana Canedy’s non-fiction book “A Journal for Jordan” on love and loss, and which was an expansion of her 2007 article. At first, director Denzel Washington focuses on Dana’s hectic life, alternating with a romantic, slightly comic portrait of the their romance. Later on, the director leans into the tragedy, family themes and patriotic ones of the story.

When they first meet at a birthday barbecue, Sgt. Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan), a career soldier, and Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams), a New York Times editor, couldn’t seem more mismatched. The birthday barbecue is for her father, a drill sergeant with whom Dana, a sophisticated New Corker, has a testy relationship. The news that yet another of her drill Sergeant dad’s young soldiers is going to be there induces some eye-rolling on Dana’s part. Yet when she actually meets handsome Charles Monroe King, sparks fly. The two start an on-and-off long distance relationship, despite her New York sophistication and his penchant for corny dad jokes, that deepens over time, as Charles achieves his ambition to be a career drill sergeant and Dana’s journalism career soars.

Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams have a nice chemistry together, and her more outgoing, big-city character makes an appealing contrast to his ramrod straight, country boy sincerity. When a driver at a traffic signal fails to respond quickly when the light changes, Adams’ Dana reaches over and leans on the horn. By contrast, polite rule-follower Charles instructs her on the proper way to keep hands on the steering wheel at all times. While Dana is happy to drowse in bed in the morning, Charles bounces out of bed and starts doing push-ups on the floor. Michael B. Jordan fans will appreciate the many times the actor appears without his shirt, showing off his fine physique. Since a lot of the story seems to take place in Dana’s apartment, there are ample opportunities.

At first there is a romantic comedy vibe to the film. But just as the couple prepares to welcome their son Jordan and to wed, 9/11 happens. When Sgt. King is deployed to Iraq, Dana sends Charles off with a journal, and instructions to write in it every day he is gone, as a record of advice to his son.

That is, of course, the journal in the title, although Dana waits until Jordan is older to share it with him. The romance thread’s earlier romantic comedy bent yields to a more serious tone, as they anticipate the birth of their child and get engaged, and then tensely dramatic as the events of 9/11 unfold. The story of the romance unfolds along side scenes of Jordan growing up, hitting familiar milestones, but also painting a portrait of a woman working through grief. The two thread come together in a moment of grief, family and sense of duty at the end.

However, not every great, moving true story makes a great movie. The translating of this story to the screen loses some of the poetry of Canedy’s writing and the sentiment is heavy in this three-hankie tragic drama. Director Denzel Washington leans into the sentimental, although the romance has some nice comic turns early on, but the sentiment gets more ponderous as the story goes on. Fans of romantic weepers may be the best audience for this sentimental film, while others might find it too Hallmark Channel for their taste.

A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN opens Saturday, Dec. 25, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars