Overview
- Now in general release after fall premieres at Telluride and Toronto, the film expands beyond the festival circuit.
- Zhao adapts Maggie O’Farrell’s novel with Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare.
- The drama explores parental grief and a speculative link between the loss of Shakespeare’s son and the later play Hamlet, acknowledging the scant historical record.
- The filmmaking leans on image and sound over dialogue, with Łukasz Żal’s cinematography, Johnnie Burns’s textured sound design, and sparing use of Max Richter’s score.
- The film won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama and for Buckley, drawing strong audience reactions as critics both praise its power and question its sentimental, conjectural approach.