Filling in the blanks

A few years ago my friend Donna was raving about a novel she’d just read – Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. I thought it sounded fascinating, meant to get around to it, never did. And now there’s a film version. An amazing film version, which we went to see yesterday.

For anyone who somehow doesn’t know, the novel and now film tell the story of Shakespeare’s marriage and the death of his son Hamnet and suggests that this traumatic event led to the writing of Hamlet. (Apparently the two names were interchangeable back then.)

Ask me a couple of days ago what I knew about Shakespeare’s wife and I would have said: her name was Anne Hathaway; she was older than him; while he was in London becoming a famous playwright she stayed in Stratford, ran a business and raised the children. Not much, but kinder to her than many historians have been.

O’Farrell blows the lid off this. What was her name? History has settled on Anne, but the only actual mention of her in any surviving document is the money left in her father’s will to his daughter Agnes. So O’Farrell decided that was good enough for her. Agnes it is (and was). The novelist had many blanks to fill in and some of what she’s imagined is harder to believe than much of the rest. (How Agnes gave birth to her first child, for example.)

I’m not going to say much more about the plot. If you want more on the was she/wasn’t she debate, click here.

This is about the film. It’s the first film showing in town since Dirk and I have been together that’s interested us enough to actually get the ferry over to go to the cinema. I knew a fair bit about the plot, he knew almost nothing. We were both blown away. Trust me when I say there wasn’t a dry eye in the house at the end.

Jessie Buckley as Agnes. Holy fucking moly. No wonder she’s the favourite to win best actress gongs at the BAFTAs and the Oscars. Unbelievable performance.

Sadly for Paul Mescal, he is not the bookies’ favourite for the best supporting actor BAFTA and he didn’t even get a look in with the Oscars.

Apparently playing Shakespeare doesn’t do you many favours. Back in 1999, Joseph Fiennes didn’t get a mention for either Shakespeare in Love or Elizabeth in the Oscar nominations, although both his leading ladies were nominated and Gwyneth Paltrow walked off with best actress. Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett lost as Elizabeth, but Judi Dench won a supporting gong for playing the older Elizabeth. As an added snub to Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush was nominated as best supporting actor. Oh, well.

Anyway, anyway…

The upshot is: Go to see this film if you possibly can. Don’t wait for it to be available streaming. Go to a cinema, spend the money. You won’t be sorry.