Did you ever wonder what the domestic life of William Shakespeare might have actually looked like? Spoiler: it’s not the Bard you met in your high school English class. Forget the feather quill in the candle-lit study — this Shakespeare is knee-deep in a messy marriage, tending to sick children, managing long-distance fatherhood, and proving that even the greatest playwright in history couldn’t master work-life balance.

Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel, Hamnet wisely focuses not on Shakespeare, but on his wife, Agnes Hathaway. She is the film’s emotional center — a strong, intuitive woman trying to run a household in plague-stricken Stratford-upon-Avon while her husband frequently disappears to London to pursue his burgeoning theater career. Whenever Will does return home, the visits oscillate between fiery arguments with Agnes and tender, restorative moments with his children — including young Hamnet himself.

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As a lifelong devotee of all things Shakespeare, I was more than eager to attend this screening. I’ve visited the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London and made my own pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon. While the movie is set in both locales, it was actually filmed elsewhere in the UK — though you’d hardly notice. Still, I would have welcomed a bit more balance between the Stratford domesticity and the London theatrical world. But the film’s intent is clear: this is Agnes’s story, not William’s.

And like many acclaimed indie films, Hamnet lives or dies on its performances. Fortunately, the acting is its beating heart.

Jessie Buckley delivers a fierce, emotionally raw Agnes — part mystic, part healer, part exhausted mother battling plague, loneliness, and marital distance. Many viewers will relate deeply to her exhaustion and resilience. If Hamnet gets any Oscar buzz, acting-wise, it will be because of Jessie.

Paul Mescal, as Shakespeare, gives a thoughtful performance as a brilliant but distracted husband — the kind of man who might forget to take out the trash because he’s lost in a metaphor. His pivotal monologue (which eventually echoes in Hamlet) is beautifully delivered and showcases real range.

Finally, the child actor playing Hamnet brings a tender emotional weight that elevates the film’s final act. His performance is subtle but affecting — and yes, it may bring more than a few audience members to tears.

My final verdict? A solid B+. Hamnet is beautifully acted, gorgeously constructed, and emotionally resonant — particularly, if you’re already a Shakespeare devotee. Legend has it that its TIFF premiere earned a four-minute standing ovation. I understand the enthusiasm — I’d have been standing too.

But here’s the truth: those of us applauding were already “in the congregation.” For broader audiences, the film may feel slow, dialogue-heavy, and emotionally draining. This is not Shakespeare in Love (1998), which captivated the masses. Hamnet is more meditative, more somber, and far less mainstream.

You’ve been advised.
Choose wisely.

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There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Hamnet.

Plot
The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
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Tom Stoppard, frequently hailed as the greatest British playwright of this generation, had both a remarkable life and a remarkable career.

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, his family fled to Singapore when the Nazis invaded. When Japan threatened their new home, his mother took him and his brother to India. His father stayed behind in Singapore but died when the ship he was aboard was sunk. His mother later married a British officer and the family relocated to England, where young Stoppard took his stepfather’s surname and “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said.

Stoppard quickly became known for his clever, witty and intellectually curious work, earning three Olivier Awards, five Tony Awards and an Oscar (for “Shakespeare in Love”). He was even knighted in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to theater.

Starting with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1966, through his final full-length play “Leopoldstadt” in 2020, Stoppard crafted a body of work that would be the envy of most countries, let alone one writer.

Below are some of Stoppard most important plays, with observations from Times critics:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966)

After working as a journalist, Stoppard had a breakthrough when this absurdist romp debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe. Times theater critic Charles McNulty reviewed a 2013 production at the Old Globe’s Shakespeare Festival in San Diego, describing it as a “metapharcical romp (to coin a genre), in which ‘Hamlet’ is glimpsed through the oblique perspective of the prince’s twin buddies, sent to spy on him by Gertrude and Claudius in that Elsinore castle of murder, adultery and occult intrigue. … Stoppard’s fertile wit keeps this three-act drama pulsing along without too much strain. A subtle pathos, along with the playwright’s verbal sophistication, prevents the play from degenerating into a collegiate vaudeville.” In 1990, Stoppard himself directed a film version starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth.

Jumpers (1972)

This satire set in an alternative universe in which British astronauts land on the moon and “Radical Liberals” have taken over the nation’s government, premiered at London’s Old Vic starring Michael Hordern and Diana Rigg. Two years later, Times theater critic Dan Sullivan reviewed an American Conservatory Theater production of it in San Francisco. “Stoppard’s new play can’t be hung with one of those preprinted tags that theater critics carry in their pockets for easy labeling,” he wrote. “You might call it a Metaphysical Spoof With Acrobatic Prelude, or you might not. The only general thing you can say about it is that it’s very bright and very funny, and sometimes rather touching.”

Travesties (1974)

The Royal Shakespeare Company staged the first production at the Aldwych Theatre in London, starring John Wood, John Hurt, Tom Bell and Frank Windsor. Stoppard was fascinated with the idea that James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin and Dadadist poet Tristan Tzara were all living in Zurich in 1917. He placed these zeitgeist figures in the orbit of a more humble historical figure named Henry Carr, who figured into Joyce’s “Ulysses.” The Times’ Sullivan took in the 1975 New York production, calling it “dazzling” and wondered if Broadway audiences would be able to keep up with it. “Like Stoppard’s last play ‘Jumpers’ (which didn’t do very well here), this is a vaudeville show where the language does tricks as well as the actors,” wrote Sullivan. “And to do the tricks as well as ‘Travesties,’ John Wood [as Carr], a playwright’s language has got to be pretty accomplished.”

The Real Thing (1982)

Felicity Kendal and Roger Rees originated the lead roles in Stoppard’s very personal examination of love and marriage, truth and honesty. The playwright significantly reworked the script for its Broadway run, starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons directed by Mike Nichols, to great success. Linda Purl and Michael Gross assumed the roles for the 1986 L.A. production at the Doolittle Theatre. ”Without spoiling its surprises, the reviewer can say that not every scene in ‘The Real Thing’ is what it seems to be, including the first one,” wrote Sullivan. “Stoppard’s characters are theater people, professional makers of scenes, and some of these scenes get swept into the play. … ‘The Real Thing’ has wit, surprise and characters you care about. … If you like plays written in full sentences, you’ll like ‘The Real Thing.’

Arcadia (1993)

Moving between the 19th century and the present, Stoddard balanced tragedy and comedy with a healthy dose of science and mathematics. The play opened at the Royal National Theatre in London directed by Trevor Nunn with a cast including Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal, Bill Nighy and Emma Fielding. Two years later, in New York, Nunn directed a new cast that included Billy Crudup, Blair Brown, Victor Garber as Bernard, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Dundas and Paul Giamatti in his Broadway debut. “‘Arcadia’ is a great play not because it seamlessly meshes serious ideas and the intense pleasure of a literary detective story,” wrote Times critic Laurie Winer, reviewing director Robert Egan’s 1997 Mark Taper Forum production. “It is a great play because, by the end, Tom Stoppard touches ineffability, just as his heroine touches genius.”

The Invention of Love (1997)

For this portrait of poet A. E. Housman, Stoppard once again turned to historical figures for his cast. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre, London, with Housman played as an old man by John Wood and as a young man by Paul Rhys. It was directed by Richard Eyre. The play opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in 2001, directed by Jack O’Brien. “Stoppard has written an essentially undramatic dreamscape,” wrote Times critic Michael Phillips.” The recently deceased Housman (Richard Easton), about to cross the River Styx, assesses his recessive life and great unrequited love for the athlete Moses Jackson (David Harbour), a fellow Oxford man. En route, the elder Housman runs into his younger self (Robert Sean Leonard). There’s a long scene near the end of Act 1 shared by the two Housmans. As they discuss the niceties and textual flaws of the classics they love as much as life itself, Stoppard’s playfulness is tinged with rue; the older man cannot prevent the younger’s heartbreak to come.”

The Coast of Utopia (2002)

This trilogy of plays, “Voyage,” “Shipwreck” and “Salvage,” zeroed in on philosophical debates in 19th century Russia. They premiered at the National Theatre’s Olivier auditorium in repertory, directed by Nunn. The plays debuted on Broadway, directed by Jack O’Brien, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center in 2006. “A nearly eight-hour drama about the Russian intelligentsia that received mixed reviews when it premiered in London in 2002, ‘The Coast of Utopia’ isn’t for the theatrical faint of heart,” cautioned Times critic McNulty. “Stamina is a prerequisite for the company and audience alike. … Stoppard’s play enacts a moment in history when thinkers and writers set out to redirect the future. Ideologies were conceived and pressed immediately into service, sometimes at the expense of the individual lives they were theoretically meant to serve. [It] dramatizes both the ebb and flow of conditional life and the hunger for unconditional solutions to its woes.”

Rock ‘n’ Roll (2006)

Stoppard looked to his Czech roots with this drama, connecting the Prague Spring of 1968 with the Velvet Revolution of 1989 through music. The play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, once again directed by Nunn and featuring Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox and Sinéad Cusack. The cast moved to Broadway in 2007. “You might want to arrive a bit early and study the timelines in the lobby, which detail Czechoslovakia’s turbulent political history from 1968 to 1990 and key events in the rock music scene during that era,” wrote reviewer F. Kathleen Foley of Open Fist’s 2010 production. “Read them carefully. Otherwise your head just may explode at some point during this Los Angeles premiere, which presupposes an intimate familiarity with Czech history, the early rock scene and, oh, did we mention Sapphic poetry? It’s all a bit ostentatious and difficult to follow — but even at his most intellectually prolix, Stoppard is flat-out brilliant, arguably our greatest living playwright.”

Leopoldstadt (2020)

The final play of Stoppard’s brilliant career was sparked by the playwright learning of the plight of his Jewish ancestors upon his mother’s death in 1996. It debuted at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End, but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted on Broadway in 2022 starring Davis Krumholtz with Patrick Marber directing. The play “unfolds as a series of oil paintings magicked into life,” wrote Times critic McNulty. “The play, which features a cast of 38 actors, moves from turn-of-the-century Vienna, where Freud, Mahler and Schnitzler are the talk of the town, to 1924, when the scars of World War I are clearly visible. Performed without intermission, the action ominously leaps to 1938, as the Nazis are ransacking the homes of Jewish citizens. The play concludes in 1955, when three family survivors reunite to piece together the fates of their murdered relatives. … It’s not just that the work mirrors aspects of his personal history. It’s also the virtuosic way that he conjures the shifting cultural zeitgeist of Vienna in the first half of the 20th century through stylized conversation alone.”

You can find audio dramas by L.A. Theatre Works of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” “The Real Thing” and “Arcadia” on Spotify.

Many of the films Stoppard wrote or co-wrote are available for streaming, including “Brazil” (1985),” Turner Classic Movies, and for rent on Apple TV and Prime Video; “The Russia House” (1990), for rent on Prime Video; “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” (1990), for rent on various platforms; “Empire of the Sun” (1987), for rent on various platforms; and “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), Paramount+ and Kanopy, and for rent on various platforms.

Stoppard is also certainly a playwright whose work is a joy to read. Most of these plays can be found at your local public library or favorite bookstore.

Film

Zootopia 2
Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Walt Disney Animation Studios
In Theaters: 11.26.2025

I’ll freely admit that I’m a sucker for anything animated that features talking animals. Disney’s The Jungle Book was literally the first movie I ever saw in my life and I really struggle to process the idea that there are people out there who didn’t like Zootopia. The mixture of fuzzy, furry friends with the ‘80s buddy cop homage and a healthy dose of not-so-subtle social commentary really did it for me. By virtue of being a sequel, Zootopia 2 is understandably going to have a higher number of detractors, but I won’t be among them.

Zootopia 2 picks up roughly within a year of the events of the first film, with Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin, Walk The Line, Once Upon A Time) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development, Ozark) struggling in their now-official police partnership, bickering so much they’re forced into “partner therapy.” Their latest case begins with the arrival of Gary De’Snake (Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once), a mysterious pit viper whose sudden appearance sparks citywide panic. When a high-profile kidnapping at the crime at the Zootennial Gala (a celebration of 100 years since the city was founded) points to Gary, Judy and Nick give chase — only to uncover a buried chapter of Zootopia’s past involving a long-hidden reptile community. As they flee both criminals and their own department, the duo learns that Gary’s motives may not be what they appear to be. This case proves to be the ultimate test of Judy and Nick’s ability to work together, and if they don’t learn to put their differences aside and trust each other’s instincts, their investigation may be over before it even begins.

The plotting gets a bit convoluted, and the “bigger is better” formula that tends to be standard for sequels threatens to get the “better” of the movie at times. But only at times. On the whole, Zootopia 2 is filled with enough high energy fun that it works even when it’s not completely sure where it’s going. A good deal of this comes down to Nick and Judy, who rank up there with Disney’s most likable classic characters, and share such a charming dynamic that they are always a treat to watch. The movie builds on that dynamic and the complexities of their friendship and working relationship, and even runs into the almost inevitable question: is there potential for more than a professional, or even friendship-based relationship between a bunny and a fox? While it’s never directly addressed, it’s hard to escape the feeling that there’s a mutual interspecies attraction here the likes of which is generally reserved for frogs and pigs. I honestly don’t think even writer and co-director Jared Bush knows exactly where this relationship is going to go in the clearly teased Zootopia 3, but what matters is that we care so much about them as characters that whatever the bond is between them, we’re solidly invested in seeing it through and rooting for them. Goodwin and Bateman are simply marvelous, and the perennially lovable Quan is a very welcome addition as Gary, as is Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as Pawbert Lynxley, the unwanted, screw-up member of Zootopia’s most powerful family.

Zooptopia 2 is a delightful family adventure with a lot of heart and creativity, and it’s perfect holiday weekend moviegoing. If it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing, but for everyone else, it’s a joyful and exhilarating experience. —Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews from Patrick Gibbs:
Film Review: Eternity
Film Review: Rental Family