Be Brave. See "Hamnet."
Yes, I know you’re scared. You’ve heard or read that it’s sad or a tearjerker or something like that.
And that people are saying it’s “grief porn.”
YES. I UNDERSTAND YOU’RE AFRAID.
Maybe you’re so young that you think you’re going to avoid feeling grief in your life.
Or maybe you’re a little older and have experienced the grief but not really let it seep into your bones or move through your body.
Or maybe you want to see a movie that’s going to rescue you from the day-to-day exposure to pain and suffering and tragedy and idiocy of the world.
But actually expanding your capacity to feel is good for you. And good for society at large.
MY SECOND TIME.
I just got back from seeing Hammet for the second time tonight. In an actual theater with actual other people in the room.
After I saw it the first time I read and saw many interviews with Chloe Zhao the Director. I’m super affected by other people’s opinions about movies before I’ve seen them so I went in knowing as little as possible.
But here’s my bottom line.
THIS IS A TRANSFORMATIVE WORK OF ART.
That is also about Art as an act of transformation and healing.
There is plenty of pain and grief and anger to go around in the movie. And in our communities today. And in the world beyond our current local madness.
So to the people who are afraid to see this movie because they’re afraid of feeling the grief, here’s what I have to say to you.
THIS MOVIE DOES NOT SIMPLY RUB IT IN YOUR FACE.
This movie takes its characters through a process of transformation.
From Anyes the mother. To William Shakespeare, the father. To Hammet, the son.
I’m not going to give any details or spoilers.
Unfortunately, you’ve probably heard or read too much to go in unknowing. But I’m not going to make it worse.
But if you’re a thinking feeling human, I invite you to see this movie. And if you’re a filmmaker or a writer or a musician or a painter or a novelist or artist or creator of any kind, I invite you to see this movie.
THE INNER LIFE OF AN ARTIST.
Because it’s also about the inner life and journey of an artist. A writer. Perhaps you’ve heard of William Shakespeare.
I admit that early on the fact that it was about Shakespeare made me not so eager to see it. I’m not actually a Shakespeare fan. And I have a hard time with that language stuff. (I learned later that Chloe Zhao the director was not a fan of Shakespeare either.) A good friend said to me the other day “I don’t like period pieces.”
And even the second time I saw it in some of the “theater scenes“ I was still unable to figure out what they were saying, but it turned out that did not matter.
THE FACES TOLD THE STORY.
What was important to be communicated was communicated on the faces of the actors in the movie and the characters in the movie. (Props to Jesse Buckley.)
And the moving transformation and healing that occurs is unlike anything I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time. (Props to Maggie O’Farrell who wrote the novel. )
- WILL YOU BE BRAVE?
Will you risk a journey into the state of feeling and trust that you will come out the other side?
Will you commit to your own artist/creator/writer/filmmaker/whatever self to have your life, art and work enriched by an amazing work of cinema art?
David
PS: And if you're seen this . . . how did it hit you?
PPS: And if you're ready to make some BRAVE MOVE in your creative career . . . maybe it's time to schedule a time for us to talk.
