Hamnet

Shakespeare is in love again in Hamnet, a 400-year-old romance that in contemporary terms might be called a prequel or, heaven forbid, an origin story.

Its intrinsic links to one of the Bard’s most famous and certainly most personal works lend a curiosity value to this revisionist drama from director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) about processing tragedy and using creativity as a vessel for catharsis and closure.

It offers intriguing speculation on the inspiration behind Hamlet, especially considering its female perspective. Once you take away those literary connections, however, this saga of a family torn apart by tragedy wallows in relentless misery in its second half, as a method of aggressive tearjerking that rings somewhat hollow.

Almost immediately, the attraction between Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and Will (Paul Mescal) hits some roadblocks. He’s drawn to her eccentricities and love for nature, while she admires his refusal to judge her or believe salacious rumors about her upbringing.

“He loves me for what I am, not what I ought to be,” Agnes explains to her brother (Joe Alwyn) about Will, whose upper-crust family predictably doesn’t approve of their courtship.

Eventually, Will’s stern mother (Emily Watson) comes around, especially when the couple marries and Agnes has three children including twins — daughter Judith (Olivia Lynes) and son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), who almost immediately shows a precocious artistic side.

Will leaves home to grow his career as a playwright in London, leaving Agnes at their rural home, where a calamity changes everything.

The visually striking film creates a sense of intimacy from its silence as it smartly eschews a persistent music score or technical gimmickry, aside from Zhao’s penchant for wide shots.

That approach enables the two central performers to shine. Buckley (The Lost Daughter) and Mescal (Gladiator II) develop a sizzling chemistry — as much through body language and facial expressions as dialogue — that gains strength once their commitment is tested by tragic circumstances.

The screenplay by Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, upon whose novel the film is based, doesn’t sufficiently develop the periphery characters nor broaden its context. Still, as it transitions from a swooning love story to a gut-wrenching parental nightmare, it carries a haunting resonance.

To be or not to be might be the oft-prompted inquiry. But for a film that requests significant buy-in to its what-if premise, the more important question in Hamnet is whether you believe.

Rated PG-13, 125 minutes.