After a detour into the superhero genre with 2021’s Eternals , Chloé Zhao, the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland , is back to contemplating the human condition—this time, in a romance-driven period piece steeped in literary lore.

Hamnet , adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name, imagines how loss inspired William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , a ghost story written just a few years after the death of his 11-year-old son. The film stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as fictionalized versions of the Bard and his wife, Agnes, the two of whom share a whirlwind romance before the realities of domestic life set in and, eventually, grief threatens to tear them apart.

Hamnet ’s production design and costumes suit the film’s intimate focus and scale, with Zhao’s camera ling

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