Hamnet
Schedule
Fri, 17 Apr, 2026 at 08:00 pm to Sun, 04 Apr, 2027 at 11:28 pm
UTC+01:00Location
The Screening Room at Parade House | Trowbridge
Advertisement
HAMNET (2025) Cert 12Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson. Directed by Chloe Zhao. 126mLed by Jessie Buckley’s luminous performance, Hamnet is a profoundly moving and beautifully crafted film that transforms Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel into an intimate, emotionally rich cinematic experience. Rather than leaning into heavy historical drama, the film embraces a poetic, almost dreamlike approach to storytelling—one that feels both timeless and deeply human.Set in Elizabethan England and inspired by the life surrounding William Shakespeare, the narrative centres on Agnes, a wild and strong-willed woman with a deep connection to the natural world. (In her father’s will, the woman who became Shakespeare’s wife and who we generally think of today as ‘Anne Hathaway’ is named not as Anne but as Agnes). Jessie Buckley inhabits this role with extraordinary depth, delivering a performance that feels wholly instinctive rather than acted, and which has been deservedly awarded with the Best Actress Oscar and BAFTA.After meeting and marrying the struggling schoolteacher Will Shakespeare, Agnes falls pregnant first with a daughter, Judith, and then twins Hamnet and Susanna. Hamnet is a loving and creative boy (an amazing performance from young Jacobi Jupe) but tragically, while his father is away in London establishing a career as a playwright, he falls ill and dies. Shakespeare arrives back too late for this tragedy. Though haunted by his son’s death, he is unable or unwilling to support his grieving family and flees back to London where he tries to exorcise this pain in the play Hamlet. Agnes pursues him to the capital and witnesses the play’s first performance in the film’s deeply moving final scenes. There will be tears!
At its core, Hamnet is a story about love—familial, romantic, and enduring—and it is this focus that gives the film its quiet but devastating power. Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes is the film’s greatest triumph. She captures not only the character’s grief but also her vitality and warmth. Her Agnes is unforgettable, and her work here stands as one of the finest performances of her career. It is a wonderful and moving film.
Why not make an evening of it and join us for dinner before the movie? Make your dinner reservations here.
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
The Screening Room at Parade House, Parade House, 70 Fore Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8HQ, United Kingdom
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
