HAMNET (2025) Cert 12
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson. Directed by Chloe Zhao. 126m
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Led by Jessie Buckley’s luminous performance, Hamnet is a profoundly moving and beautifully crafted film that transforms Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel into an intimate, emotionally rich cinematic experience. Rather than leaning into heavy historical drama, the film embraces a poetic, almost dreamlike approach to storytelling—one that feels both timeless and deeply human.
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Set in Elizabethan England and inspired by the life surrounding William Shakespeare, the narrative centres on Agnes, a wild and strong-willed woman with a deep connection to the natural world. (In her father’s will, the woman who became Shakespeare’s wife and who we generally think of today as ‘Anne Hathaway’ is named not as Anne but as Agnes). Jessie Buckley inhabits this role with extraordinary depth, delivering a performance that feels wholly instinctive rather than acted, and which has been deservedly awarded with the Best Actress Oscar and BAFTA.
After meeting and marrying the struggling schoolteacher Will Shakespeare, Agnes falls pregnant first with a daughter, Judith, and then twins Hamnet and Susanna. Hamnet is a loving and creative boy (an amazing performance from young Jacobi Jupe) but tragically, while his father is away in London establishing a career as a playwright, he falls ill and dies. Shakespeare arrives back too late for this tragedy. Though haunted by his son’s death, he is unable or unwilling to support his grieving family and flees back to London where he tries to exorcise this pain in the play Hamlet. Agnes pursues him to the capital and witnesses the play’s first performance in the film’s deeply moving final scenes. There will be tears!
At its core, Hamnet is a story about love—familial, romantic, and enduring—and it is this focus that gives the film its quiet but devastating power. Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes is the film’s greatest triumph. She captures not only the character’s grief but also her vitality and warmth. Her Agnes is unforgettable, and her work here stands as one of the finest performances of her career. It is a wonderful and moving film.
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Why not make an evening of it and join us for dinner before the movie?
H IS FOR HAWK (2025)
Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Lindsay Duncan. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. 115m.
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A deeply moving and beautifully crafted adaptation of Helen Macdonald’s best-selling memoir about her struggles with deep melancholy after the sudden death of her adored father. Putting her role as Queen Elizabeth in the Netflix series The Crown far behind her, Claire Foy excels as the troubled and withdrawn Helen. Already a keen birdwatcher, she seeks redemption from her grief by attempting to train a semi-feral goshawk, which she names Mabel.
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Notoriously, goshawks are the great white sharks of the bird world, apex predators with a ruthless killing streak and no capacity for emotional attachment. But for Helen the very significant challenge provides a release from her profound sadness. The film shows falconry not just as a skill but as a transformative process — one that requires patience, discipline and above all trust. Through her relationship with Mabel, Helen begins to rebuild herself, finding moments of peace and purpose amid her grief.
Perhaps most impressively of all, Foy is doing all this for real. She spent weeks before filming began learning how to handle a goshawk and as a result her scenes with Mabel have an astonishing authenticity. When she looks nervous with Mabel, she is genuinely nervous. (And justifiably so!) When she is thrilled to get Mabel to do something, she is genuinely thrilled. In the end, though, the relationship with Mabel begins to threaten Helen's connection to the real world -- her job, her friends, the other grieving members of her family -- and she has to come to a decision about which path to follow.
It's very much Foy's film but she gets strong support from the rest of the superb cast: Brendan Gleeson as her irrepressible father, Lindsay Duncan as her concerned mother, and Denise Gough as her always protective best friend. Perhaps most impressive of all is Mabel herself -- or rather the three separate birds who play her. She is the most astonishing, awe-inspiring and ever so slightly terrifying creature, with a razor-sharp beak and talons and a gaze as cold as ice.
Importantly, H Is For Hawk offers a hopeful perspective on grief. It does not deny the pain of loss, but it gently suggests that healing can come from the most unexpected places.
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Why not make an evening of it and join us for dinner before the movie?
Host Your Own Private Movie Night
The Screening Room and adjoining Ushers Bar make the perfect setting for a private party for friends and family, or for a corporate event.
The Screening Room seats up to 24 people in comfortable and luxurious leather chairs, and your guests can enjoy drinks and food beforehand in Ushers Bar. Thousands of movies are available for private screenings, from Hollywood classics to recent blockbusters and family favourites.
If you are booking The Screening Room for a private event, we can also show your own personalised video or a carousel of personal photos before the main show.
For corporate screenings, The Screening Room can show promotional films or video content produced inhouse.
Cost to hire The Screening Room & Ushers Bar is £350. That includes exclusive use of The Screening Room & Ushers Bar for up to four hours and the license to show a film of your choice (subject to availability).
Your guests will be able to purchase drinks from our bar, or you can pre-order your requirements. We can also provide food by prior arrangement ranging from bar snacks to a full sit-down dinner.