Chloé Zhao's Shattering New Film Proves Her Divisive Marvel Movie Was A Fluke [TIFF 2025]

I watched "Hamnet" at a Monday 8:50am screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, in a theater that, by the final act, was filled with viewers openly weeping. I was familiar with the general story of William Shakespeare's personal life and I read his play "Hamlet" a few years back; I had not read the novel "Hamnet" that this movie was based on, however, and was thus unprepared to suffer so much heartbreak so early in the morning. 

"Hamnet" may not have been a pleasant viewing experience, but it was a powerful one. Paul Mescal (who plays the famous bard) and Jessie Buckley (who plays his tragic wife Agnes, the film's main character) both offer a gut-wrenching depiction of grief. They'll have you tearing up by Act Two, and it'll only get harder from there. There's also a particularly brutal use of Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" thrown into this movie, a violin-heavy score that is basically a cheat code to getting viewers choking up and blowing their nose. This is a movie with seemingly one goal — to make you cry — and it pulls it off without seeming too sappy or manipulative. 

The sheer competence in which the melodrama of "Hamnet" is depicted is a relief for fans of director Chloé Zhao, a director whose reputation took a hit in 2021 with the release of "Eternals." That Marvel Studios superhero movie was the first feature film of Zhao's that wasn't met with mass critical acclaim, which makes sense because it was the first feature film of hers that wasn't particularly good. 

There were certainly parts of "Eternals" that captured a similar spark to "Nomadland" or "The Rider," but for the most part, it was too cluttered. It felt like there was a clash between the sensibilities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with its insistence on quippy humor and constant set-up for future movies) and the sensibilities of Zhao, who preferred to keep things serious, personal, and self-contained. But the biggest issue was that this was one of the rare Marvel films that should've been a TV show instead of the other way around; its 10 main characters deserved more than just a two-and-a-half-hour movie shared between them. 

"Eternals" was hardly the first time a promising, critically-respected director flopped when they tried to make a mainstream studio film. The story of the overstuffed "Eternals" feels similar to the story of David Lynch's "Dune" in 1984. Lynch tried to make a mainstream blockbuster, failed, and thankfully went back to his more personal projects that stayed true to his own sensibilities. In some ways, failing with "Dune" was the best thing that ever happened to Lynch, as it helped him understand exactly what he wanted out of his artistic career and taught him not to try to play the big studio game ever again. 

Although "Eternals" was hardly the clear-cut bust that "Dune" was, Zhao seems to be going down the same path of following up her blockbuster failure with a welcome return to her indie roots. "Hamnet" is almost the polar opposite of "Eternals," especially in how it focuses on a small cast rather than a big sprawling mess of characters. It tells a single story with sharp focus; the film doesn't feel like it's constantly struggling against the confines of its genre or runtime. It's a return to form that strongly implies that Marvel was the problem with her last film, not Zhao herself.

Much like "Blue Velvet" proved that Lynch wasn't going anywhere, "Hamnet" proves that Zhao is here to stay. "Eternals" was only a brief stumble that may have clarified what she wanted out of her filmmaking career. It helps that, much like how Lynch has been happy to disown "Dune" in its disastrous aftermath, Zhao herself seems to understand that "Eternals" didn't quite work. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, she offered her take on how her foray into the MCU went south, and how that prepared her to make "Hamnet" as good as it could be: 

"'Eternals' had, like, an unlimited amount of money and resources. And here we have one street corner that we can afford, to [stand in for] Stratford.... 'Eternals' didn't have a lot of limitations, and that is actually quite dangerous. Because we only have that street corner [in 'Hamnet'], suddenly everything has meaning."

"Hamnet" hits limited theaters on November 27, 2025, and expands nationwide on December 12, 2025.