OPINION: Immortalizing those we love

It’s soon to be the new year, and with it comes a few changes, particularly with the CNA and this opinion section of the paper. We’re planning to begin rotating the schedule of columns on a monthly basis starting next week to give our print readers more perspectives than just myself. I’ve quite enjoyed writing about my little musings on movies, but I also recognize I’m not for everyone.

We haven’t decided who will be our January print columnist, but you can expect either Cheyenne or Erin next week. Both are excellent writers and will keep this opinion page in good hands. All three of us still write our column on a weekly basis, which can be accessed through the online portion of this newspaper. They’re all quality pieces of writing, in my opinion, and you should read the online paper often!

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To the people who remember 2020 and the state of movies during a year when most theaters were shut down, no movie seemed to be a better representative for the collective state of isolation than Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland.” That year’s Best Picture winner, “Nomadland” addressed the feeling of being disconnected from the world around us by exploring a woman’s journey across the U.S. as a nomad.

That isolation seemed to resonate with Academy voters, especially at a time when the world was disconnected from us.

Within the loneliness of “Nomadland,” Zhao was able to capture a deeply humanist feeling which resonated at a particularly critical time.

Zhao’s new movie, “Hamnet,” may be less focused on the modern day, but within its meditations on grief, the movie offer another chance for the director to pluck at our humanist hearts.

A deep analysis of the relationship between Agnes (a largely unhistoric interpretation of Anne Hathaway) and William Shakespeare at a time when their only son passes from a sudden illness, the movie mostly avoids pitfalling itself with allusion to Shakespeare’s work. There are moments, such as Shakespeare coming up with his “to be or not to be” speech, which come close to self-satisfaction, but incredible performances from Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William both ground the narrative.

While Buckley is the better performance, Mescal’s William, a Shakespeare before his second name meant anything, is often battered and broken, establishing the literary legend as nothing more than a scrappy young man whose neuroses of perfection seem to be splitting his head open.

This sense of aimlessness within young William allows for a similarly aimless Agnes to compliment each other. As both feel their own sense of isolation within the families that raised them, they’re able to rectify their anxieties within each other.

Agnes herself is potentially the most fascinating character of the year, with Zhao’s visual language establishing a mythology around her as eternally connected to the forest where she adventures as a young woman. The first shot of “Hamnet” shows Agnes in a fetal position as if she was being born out of the leaves and twigs scattered across the forest soil.

When Agnes and William start a family together, each parent’s anxieties for parenthood find absolution through raising their children. Agnes gets her chance to raise a family separate from the influences of the world around them while William gets to be a better father than what his own father was.

Raising Hamnet, the older twin of an often sickly Judith, seems to invigorate the family in a way which can only come from watching children grow. The twins try to pull pranks on their parents and, although it’s quite obvious there’s mischief, the parents play along.

Due to extended discussions between Agnes and William about their own insecurities in the first act of the movie, this middle portion where the family is in such high spirits feels utterly joyful. Their three children, through their own trials, could become amazing individuals in their own ways.

William takes a liking to Hamnet, whose abilities as a performer show potential to William. His high standards were being matched by his own son, the first time it seemed to be possible across years of tutoring scholars and other performers.

So, when Hamnet (spoilers, although I hope you’ve probably guessed this happens) passes, all that potential, all that love, suddenly has nowhere to go.

Buckley’s performance of a woman in grief is one of the most devastating of the year, to the point where her fearless acting feels primordial in voice-destroying yells and uncontrollable tears. Agnes, who had once seemed to will a stillborn Judith, can’t come up with a medicinal solution to save her child, and it destroys her.

This grief threatens to rip the two apart as William becomes even more reclusive as he works on his next play. How could there ever be a recovery from this moment?

When Agnes gets news of a new William Shakespeare production, “Hamlet,” she’s rightfully furious. How dare William profit off the passing of his own son? How dare he not even tell his wife what he’s been making when it’s undoubtedly personal?

Agnes, arriving at the theater for the opening performance, pushes to the front, yells at the actors, and finally seems to calm when she spots William, painted white as a ghost, performing and speaking to a character he wrote named Hamlet.

Hamlet seems to look shockingly like Hamnet, as if he experienced a growth spurt but kept his same rosy cheeks. Even Agnes realizes the similarities, and seeing her son, alive but ever distant, almost breaks her.

There is a power within our very souls to immortalize those we love. To give life to those who could not escape demise. It can only be given to those we love and those we wish to remember. As if a ghost could appear before us, undoubtedly alive, if only for a moment.