To Cry or Not to Cry?

"It's not a matter of if an audience will cry at Chloé Zhao's Hamnet but when. In my case, at the film's Toronto International Film Festival premiere, it happened late in the film, when one character reaches a hand out to another. I'd been surrounded by sniffling and the discreet sounds of people rifling through bags for tissues for several minutes, but that extended hand put at least one audience member several rows behind me past the point of composure."

"Crying - how much festival audiences have engaged in it, how devastated the weeping was, which cast members succumbed to it during press interviews - has been the major topic of discussion about Hamnet as it's made its way through the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. Zhao's mournful, gorgeous adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel, a fictionalized tale of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes after the death of their young son, is one of the relatively few breakout films from this year's fall festivals."

Chloé Zhao's Hamnet provokes intense emotional reactions at screenings, with many audience members crying openly. The Toronto International Film Festival premiere produced audible sobbing, discreet searches for tissues, and at least one breakdown triggered by a simple extended hand. The film adapts Maggie O'Farrell's novel into a mournful, gorgeous fictionalized tale of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes after the death of their young son. Reviews and headlines have emphasized the movie's devastating emotional impact. Zhao and cast members have been moved to tears during festival appearances and interviews. Focus Features is positioning Hamnet as an Oscar contender using audience reaction as a hook.

Read at Vulture