Hamnet

This week we’re taking a close listen to the trailer for Chloé Zhao’s new film Hamnet, winner of the 2025 TIFF People’s Choice Award. The trailer opens with the sounds of birds as we see Agnes (aka Anne) Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) looking up at birds in flight, while sustained strings and wordless choir swell in with a cluster chord in B flat major. The closeness of the notes brings a sense of intimacy, and also wonder. It mirrors the majesty of a hunting hawk perching on Agnes’ glove at 0:06.

Production companies’ logos appear at 0:09, then we fade into a shot of Agnes with William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). After one line of dialogue from each of them, and a kiss at 0:20, we cut to a shot of Shakespeare late at night, writing by candlelight. A simple piano melody in the upper register enters, as strings and choir continue to slowly swell.

A subtle cymbal roll crescendos to 0:29 as the producers’ names fade in (Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes). At 0:32 William comments to Agnes about his lack of talent, and a piano begins ascending the B flat major scale, one note at a time, at roughly the same tempo as a clock (ticking clocks are a trailer music device we’ve often blogged about). This rising scale arrives at the tonic (B flat) on the downbeat at 0:40. This downbeat is synched to a picture cut: we now see Agnes and William running through the woods, and the strings have picked up the piano’s earlier melody. By 0:53, we are seeing Agnes talk to her son, Hamnet, now roughly 8 years old, while the string orchestra plays a triumphant melody over a descending bass line.

At 1:00 William rings a bell (synched to the beat of the music) and Agnes opens her eyes to see their children play-acting. At 1:12, as a voiceover warns “Never forget for a moment,” the music pauses on the last chord of its progression.

We cut to silence at 1:14, and cut to black as the trailer takes a devastating turn: Hamnet’s death (assumed to be from the plague). The music stays with the string orchestra, but pivots to a minor chord. There is a lot more story yet to tell in this two and a half minute trailer, so music only holds the grief for about 10 seconds. At 1:23, a percussion roll lifts us out of the minor chord, and the string orchestra’s four-chord progression from earlier is back. The ensuing montage begins to pivot to Shakespeare’s life in the theatre in London. Some visuals nicely synched to the music here, including William banging his hands on the table at 1:27. Even the horse’s hoofbeats at 1:30 are in time with the music.

The remainder of the trailer continues the same triumphant string orchestra melody and chords, and at 2:05 returns to the rising major scale heard before at 0:40, this time played by the violins. They rise towards the tonic (B flat) as we see Agnes in the front of the audience at a performance of Hamlet, but just before the orchestra reaches that glorious final chord, instead, the music cuts to silence at 2:12, leaving space for a tender scene from when young Hamnet was still alive and joking with his father. We do at least receive the release of that long awaited B flat major chord at 2:20 as we see the film’s title card.

Hamnet is in theatres November 26th. Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster.

— Jack Hui Litster