Slow. Far too long.
First of all, there was a spoiler even before the film began when they bunged up a caption to explain that Hamnet and Hamlet were more or less the same name and then attributed the quote as being from "The Death of Hamnet and the Writing of Hamlet”. So we now know, even before he is born, before the film starts, what will happen to the title character. I mean, I knew anyway. Many people will. But why spoil the enjoyment for those who didn't? It was so unnecessary.
But dramatic tension didn't seem a concern for this production. They were all about gorgeous shots of the forest, great acting and hearing Jesse Buckley scream which she does frequently. But there was so much that could have been cut. Why did we need to see Will Shakespeare swim? Or wander along the Thames? And that bit about throwing something up in the air to see a departed one fly ... why do it twice? I was checking my watch after about forty minutes.
I didn't actually like the book, which is reviewed here. The characters are stereotypes: bad husband, wicked stepmother, supportive brother, child of nature, golden child. The characterisation is thin. Agnes, the lead, is a wonderwoman who grows up living in the forest, a sort of sylvan version of the lead in Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens who is herself Tarzan for feminist millennials. But the novel has the redeeming feature of fantastic verisimilitude and, though long, it didn't drag like this film does.
It was told there was a tear-jerking moment and there was a bit, nearly at the end, in the twenty minutes or so that was extracts from Hamlet being played at the Globe, when there was a lot of arm-stretching that got a bit emotional. But mostly my tears were of boredom.
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