Hamnet
In this movie they may as well introduce us to a poor little puppy with only 1 leg that is bullied by his classmates, and finally when he finds love and acceptance he dies in a fire screaming an agony. I know and appreciate that there are tough realities in this world, and that it's not always emotional manipulation when they are portrayed on screen, but part of me felt like this movie was a little over indulgent with the sadness. It felt a little mean-spirited to have us know this sad moment was coming and then build up to it in the most tear-inducing ways. The portrayals of suffering are extended and claustrophobic, not allowing us to look away or have a break. If the characters must go through it then so must we.
The problem with my viewing is that I knew it was coming and so I kinda just shut down because if I let myself feel everything, it would have been too much for what I was ready to accept at that time. So instead it was a stone faced, disconnected viewing of wailing and gnashing of teeth and it really wasn't landing. It was a tough watch most of the time.
My final issue is that this is a movie about Shakespeare, incorporating a lot of lines into the movie, and I kinda hate Shakespeare. I guess that's a me problem because I simply do not understand a word that is being said, and over-earnest line reads of gibberish is not enjoyable to me. It's also weird because this movie does not use Shakespearean language, except when they do, and it totally took me out of it. Paul Mescal walks out to the pier and organically improvises "To Be or Not to Be" and I thought that was a comically lame moment because he doesn't talk like that. Everything felt over-acted with maximum emotion with lots of guttural screaming and quivering speech, and that's about as mean a thing as one can say about a movie going for this level of earnestness.
And yet I have a pretty high score because this movie still does a ton right. It is beautiful with lots of shots of forest and quaint, rural seventeenth century England. Mescal and Buckley undeniably turn in powerful performances even if I didn't love the choices, and Noah Jupe has an all-timer performance for a kid. But more than anything, despite not feeling a lot of the buildup, that finale still made me feel things. The music and tears make it truly impossible not to, but that scene alone made me very forgiving of everything else. A day later and that feeling has mostly faded, but i think I'll still remember this as a movie that was willing to go there and I wasn't.
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