To be, or not to be an Oscar winner... that is the question

JESSIE BUCKLEY SHOULD BE A SHOO-IN FOR A GOLDEN STATUE FOR HER TOWERING PERFORMANCE IN MOVING DRAMA ABOUT THE TRAGIC INSPIRATION FOR SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET

- REVIEWS BY DAMON SMITH

WRITTEN before Hamlet, Shakespeare’s political thriller dedicated to the bloodthirsty history of Julius Caesar counsels the audience to embrace life without fear: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

The Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon heeds his own iambic pentameter in director Chloé Zhao’s exquisitely moving drama adapted for the screen by author Maggie O'Farrell from her novel about Shakespeare's descent into grief with wife Agnes after the death of their beloved 11-year-old son.

The picture opens in pastoral bliss with Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) wafting through a forest with her hawk, feeding rumours that she is the daughter of a witch, while William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) tutors boys in Latin to settle the debts of his bullying and brutish father (David Wilmot).