Hamnet is a magnificent film – beautiful, touching, brilliant. I have no doubt that it will earn many best picture awards from various places. My question is will Chloé Zhao also win as many awards as best director, because she deserves it for this outstanding work. There are a couple of spoilers ahead.

Hamnet stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes. The story focuses on Agnes and the three children she raises mostly alone while Will is off in London writing and producing plays.

Agnes had a gift of “seeing” things, and there were some supernatural elements woven into the story. We see her in the woods and outdoors much of the time. She was a healer.

Their children, at the most important time in the story, were Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), Judith (Olivia Lynes), and Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). The pestilence took one of their children, and the treatment of grief both made me cry from the exquisite emotional truth and sprout goosebumps because it was so beautiful and powerful. Tears and chills – that’s strong, true art and acting.

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal were absolutely, mind-blowingly good in this. Toward the end of the film, Agnes and her brother Batholomew (Joe Alwyn) go to London to see Will. They learn he’s not living in their big new home in Stratford, as they expected, but in a small attic room above the theater.

Agnes doesn’t find Will in the attic, so they go to the theater. It’s the first performance of “Hamlet.” I got the impression it was the first time Agnes had seen one of Will’s plays. The young man playing Hamlet was Noah Jupe, the real life older brother of the child who played Hamnet. They look very much alike.

Agnes didn’t really know what was going on with the play. Will was up on the stage playing a ghost, and the Hamlet character was so like her own son. She was confused at first but the power of the story eventually captured her and it was a touching and cathartic moment.

The screenplay was by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, based on the novel “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell. Chloé Zhao not only wrote and directed, she also edited and produced.

The film is currently in theaters everywhere. If you have a fresh grief in your life, it might be a hard watch. Otherwise I hope everyone can see this brilliant film.