'Hamnet is the buzziest film of the year you're probably too scared to see. Allow me to change your mind.'

I am not someone who ever thinks of covering their eyes during a movie.

I can watch intense gore and not grimace. See a terrifying figure jump into frame and not bat an eyelid. Watch an incredibly cringeworthy scene play out for far too long, and not even think to place my hands over my face and wait for it to pass.

But with Hamnet, I had to make an exception. At one point during this film, I couldn't help but push my shaking hands against my eyes, in order to give myself a brief escape from what was unfolding on screen, even though my ears were not afforded the same luxury.

This confession, of course, makes it sound as if I regret seeing this film or was left traumatised by it, which couldn't be further from the truth. I found this film to be deeply moving, tragic yet beautiful, and despite the fact that I saw it many weeks ago, I still think about it often.

It's just that this is a movie that forced me to confront the idea of death and grief in a way I would usually flee from.

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Hamnet is one of the buzziest films of the year, directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, based on the 2020 novel of the same name by O'Farrell. The movie has already won a slew of awards, including Best Drama at the recent Golden Globe Awards, and is tipped to be included in multiple Oscar categories.

Despite the ongoing influence and prevalence of his work, not much is known about the personal life of William Shakespeare. But one verifiable fact about the bard's life is that he and his wife, Anne Hathaway, suffered through the death of their son Hamnet when the child was only 11 years old. Three years later, Shakespeare went on to write one of his most famous plays, Hamlet.

It is this fact that inspired O'Farrell's historical-fiction novel Hamnet, with the writer conjuring up a fictional tale of how the couple fell in love, raised their family and then moved through the unimaginable grief of losing their son, but with a focus on Anne's (called Agnes by her family in the film) point of view, rather than William's.

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet. Image: Universal Pictures Australia.

In the opening scenes of the film, we are introduced to Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley, who is an almost dryad-like creature with the gift of otherworldly sight, who feels more at home in the nearby woods than she does in her house and has a pet hawk that she can summon to land upon her arm.

Latin tutor William Shakespeare, played by Paul Mescal, is instantly beguiled by Agnes from the moment he sees her, and although she is initially resistant to his feelings, they quickly fall madly in love, much to the dismay of their families.

Agnes' brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn), thinks the match is beneath his sister, calling William a "pasty-faced scholar" while William's mother Mary (Emily Watson) believes Agnes to be too wild and strange to marry her son, also alleging that she is the "daughter of a forest witch".

However, when Agnes falls pregnant, their families are forced to step aside and let them marry, and the film follows them as Agnes later gives birth to twins, continuing to raise their young family near her beloved woods while William spends the majority of his time in London, consumed by his writing.

But the death of their son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) destroys their complicated but happy family life, driving the couple apart and seemingly severing their bond forever.

There's definitely a world in which the idea of Hamnet as a movie could be seen as emotional manipulation, a premise that relies on making many people face their worst nightmare in the death of a child to evoke a series of expected yet unearned emotions.

Child death + tears = Oscar.

But Hamnet does not fall into that trap.

There is a richness and humanity to this story that does not centre on it's sometimes mythical overtones or the one harrowing death scene.

Instead, Zhao and O'Farrell carefully and slowly build the world around Agnes and William in a way that makes it easy for the audience to become invested in their love story and the warm but complicated dynamics of their family life. A passionate marriage that is always shadowed by his need to be consumed by his creative work and her otherworldy premonitions of what is going to happen to their family.

These characters and their world are so fully formed that I felt as if I could close my eyes and imagine exactly how their days and conversations away from what we see on screen would unfold.

A fact that makes the death of Hamnet, the scene that forced me to cover my eyes, even more impactful.

Jessie Buckley in Hamnet. Image: Universal Pictures Australia.

It's not a part of the film that is played for easy tears, shock value or to evoke a series of emotions that were not earned in the first half of the movie. It is clearly spelt out as the premise of the film before anyone stepped into the theatre, so the lead-up to this emotional catalyst had to be carefully crafted in order for it not to feel like emotional manipulation. A challenge Zhao and the filmmakers beautifully rose to.

As William Shakespeare, Paul Mescal delivers a complex and emotional performance as a driven artist who turns his greatest pain into a work of art.

Yet the real standout of this film is Jessie Buckley as Agnes, who infuses her character with such depth, force and on-screen magic that every scene she is in vibrates with passion and emotional grit. She is the one who leads us through the story and thanks to her performance, we as an audience feel every inch of her love, joy and sorrow.

Buckley has already won a Golden Globe and a Critics' Choice award for her performance and at this stage, it feels inevitable that she will also win the Oscar for Best Actress. A series of events that feels very well deserved once you've seen the film.

Given the film's subject matter, I understand there are people out there who may be afraid too afraid to watch Hamnet, and that's ok. Facing that level of raw grief, even on a fictional level, can be a difficult experience to undertake.

But allowing the idea of a film that explores profound grief to deter you from seeing it could also be a mistake, because this is a story about more than the tragedy of death.

It's also a visual masterpiece that tells a love story for the ages, a tale that examines how art has always helped us make sense of grief, a tribute to motherhood and somehow it ends with a scene that makes you feel hope over sorrow.

Hamnet is a film you really should experience — and just know that it's ok to cover your eyes.

Hamnet is in cinemas now, it is rated M.

Feature Image: Universal Pictures Australia.