Not many movies about the Bard himself

'Hamnet' is one of a few to look at the life of Shakespeare. Here are their Oscar fates.

- BY PAUL SCHRODT

For being arguably the most influential storyteller in the English language, William Shakespeare is nearly absent in movies. Of course, there are endless adaptations of and riffs on his work — everything from Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamnet” to teen-centric modernizations (“O,” “10 Things I Hate About You”) — but as a central character, the Bard is basically a blank.

Well, he was. “Hamnet” imagines the writer’s inner life with vividly naturalistic detail. Directed by Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and based on the 2020 novel “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao, the movie is being tipped as a top Oscar contender by awards prognosticators.

“Hamnet” traces Shakespeare’s (Paul Mescal) life from his courtship of wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) through the raising of their three children. When his son, Hamnet, dies at age 11, it ignites the creation of a certain immortal play that sounds a lot like his name. The larger point Zhao and O'Farrell are making is that the pain of losing a child echoes through centuries in what is widely considered Shakespeare's greatest work.

The reason so few movies dare to make Shakespeare the lead is simple: The records of his private life are scant at best. But we do know the basic facts laid out in “Hamnet” are true. O’Farrell fills in the many missing pieces: the love, the anguish, the drive to turn real-life tragedy into art. It wasn’t easy.