[Quick Summary: After William Shakespeare marries the forest-loving Agnes, they grieve the death of their son Hamnet.]
This script has a typical story arc about healing a rift when tragedy happens:
Will and Agnes meet, marry, and have kids --> Their son Hamnet dies and they grieve --> They are reunited through Will writing the play "Hamlet."
One thing I really liked about the script is how it expresses small emotional moments that eventually pile up into a barrier of communication.
I thought it was interesting that the writers did this by breaking the "show, not tell rule"* with the reverse, i.e.,"telling and not showing."
For example, in the scene below:
- Will has been very unhappy at his father's glove making business.
- He and Agnes are married and living at his parents' house.
- Agnes wakes up in the night. Will is not there. He's trying to write at night.
- She tries to comfort him, but he yells at her.
- Notice how the "telling and not showing" is to clarify indescribable feelings, or a short cut language. To explain it on screen is unnecessary.
INT. HENLEY HOUSE - ATTIC - NIGHT
...Once Susanna stops fussing, Agnes comes back to Will. She gently touches the back of his neck, trying to sooth him. But he turns his head away, wiping any tears he may shed. He will never let her see him weak.
WILL (CONT'D): I'm sorry. I've had too much to drink.
She takes his hand. He flinches.
WILL (CONT'D)(controls himself): Please. Not now.
AGNES: What are you afraid I will see?
WILL: I'm a violent, dangerous man.
He is holding all the emotions in. They are threatening to burst out of his chest and kill him. [I particularly like this description of something he can't express.]
AGNES: You are none of that. You're a good man, a good man.
He puts his arm around her waist. He lets her rub her fingers through his hair, soothing him.
AGNES (CONT'D): Is it...are you..do you wish we had not...wed? Is that it?
He looks up at her, his face pained, aghast.
WILL: No. Never. How could you say such a thing? You and Susanna are all I live for. Nothing else matters.
AGNES: What is it, then?
WILL: ...I don't know. I'm lost. I have lost my way, Agnes. The landscapes you saw... (changes his mind) It's nothing. It's nothing.
She knows what he means. Those landscapes she saw haven't been realized, and it's torturing him. But he says no more after that. [Note this "breaks a screenwriting rule" that you shouldn't include anything that can't be seen. I think it's very effective here to explain emotions that the characters don't have to explain to each other.]
AGNES: ...What can I do for you?
WILL: Nothing, my love. Nothing.
She is now at a complete loss.
WILL (CONT'D): Please go back to sleep. I need to work. All is well. I just need to work.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I think "telling, not showing" can be effective. Here, it connects a lot of dots for the reader quickly for things that are unnecessary to belabor.
Hamnet (2025)(undated)
by Chloe Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell
Based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell
*You know how I feel about the so-called "screenwriting rules." They're guidelines when you need help. They're not absolute.
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