Shadowing Practice: Why Hamnet is a Masterpiece - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hey guys, it's Brian.
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Welcome to the Awards Contender.
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So I am wrapping up my time at the Toronto Film Festival.
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As of this recording, I am leaving in a few short hours.
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By the time this video drops, I will be home.
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I have seen about 20 films here at TIFF.
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Some really wonderful movies.
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Some I liked, some I didn't like so much.
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I'll talk about one of those very soon.
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This review today is on the best film I saw at TIFF, Hamnet, directed by Chloe Zhao.
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this movie absolutely broke me.
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I mean I knew going in it was going to be an emotional experience.
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I read many of the reactions out of Telluride where this premiered a couple weeks ago
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and everyone was saying oh my god it's really sad really well done.
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I mean my expectations were sky high you know and there was really only one way to see this movie at TIFF.
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It had a couple general screenings
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but I could not get a ticket for those to save my life
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so they had one press
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and industry screening I got there almost two hours early just to guarantee I could get in
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because this was my most anticipated film at the festival
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and I am just so pleased to reports like all of
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that anticipation those two hours in line all of it was absolutely 100% worth it This is a masterpiece through and through.
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I was so impressed by everything to do with Hamnet.
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On a technical level, on an acting level, a storytelling level, all the way from its breathtaking opening shot to its extraordinary,
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emotionally devastating final 10 to 15 minutes.
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This is quite the cinema experience, and I just loved every minute of it.
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So this film is based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell.
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That book came out a few years ago.
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It's been very popular.
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I've seen it around even before this movie was announced.
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Like, I was vaguely aware of the novel Hamnet, which tells the fictionalized story of William Shakespeare and his wife Anya's, their relationship, how it develops,
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how they meet, how they have two children, and how they deal with illness, with the death of a child.
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The book got rave reviews and has now been turned into a feature film written and directed by Chloe Zhao.
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Oscar winner Chloe Zhao who made Nomadland.
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She is a stunning filmmaker who has made some great films before but wow she has really outdone herself with Hamnet.
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I mean this is the work of somebody who really knows their craft.
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How to tell a captivating story with the right actors with the right visuals with a really nice sense of pace.
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This is kind of a slow film right it's a period drama, but it never feels boring.
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It's always really interesting.
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It's constantly surprising you, especially if you haven't read the book, right?
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Like I haven't.
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I knew a couple of the plot points going in.
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I was vaguely aware of the story, but like where this goes, if you haven't watched the trailer a thousand times, I only saw it once, like many weeks ago.
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I wasn't exactly sure how all the plot threads would come together.
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Like some of the film is about Jesse Buckley's character of Anya's
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and how she is navigating her new life as a mother
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and a wife to a man who sometimes is off and away, you know, worried about his artistic sensibilities, not so much about his family.
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Something really clever about Hamnet is that if you really go into this cold, you don't know it's William Shakespeare right off the bat.
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It's not like in the first five minutes he walks up to her and says, hello, my name is William Shakespeare.
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Like, if you don't know that going in.
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It does take a while to be like, oh, okay, this is William Shakespeare.
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But yeah, at the beginning of the film, you're introduced to Agnes.
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She is by herself, like in a meadow and like the greenery.
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It's absolutely gorgeous.
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Her name is spelled like Agnes, like A-G-N-E-S.
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But in the film, they pronounce it like without the G.
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So it's like Agnes.
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She has a very simple life.
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She's just going about her days.
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And then William Shakespeare comes along and they get to talking
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and they get to kissing and they fall in love very quickly
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and so they get together and eventually have two children she is a very busy wife
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and mother trying to do her best even
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when her husband is gone for long stretches of time he
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is working on his plays he is trying to get certain productions off the ground
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so he has to be gone a lot so
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that does cause a strain on their relationship
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and like i'm not going to spoil for you what happens in the second half of hamnets i I mean, the less you know going in, the better.
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But like, it's a big plot point in the novel.
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Like it's clear from the trailer.
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It's what the movie is ultimately about.
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So I have to mention it, like talk about it.
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One of their two children dies of an illness, right?
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Dies about halfway through the movie.
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And this is a young boy you've really come to know, come to love, has a lot of spirits
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and wants a lot out of his life
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and he is struck down by this fatal illness
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and one of the most heart-wrenching things about watching hamnets like about this narrative is
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that chloe zhao does not turn the camera away you see
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this tragedy unfold in real time basically the beginning middle
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and end and it is raw it is unthinkable it is terrifying to watch unfolds
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and right at the heart of this sequence is the performance
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by jesse buckley as a mother seeing her child in pain in misery
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and there's nothing she can do this is a sequence of immense emotional power
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that works beautifully in a variety of ways even though it is again kind of hard to watch at times
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and this sets into motion like the rest of the narrative and where the characters are going to go next, how they are going to deal with their intense grief.
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Are they going to turn to others in their community?
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Are they going to turn to art?
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And creating, how does art help us in our time of grief is like a big element of this movie.
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And by the end, once you see what this film is really about, you know, like with a capital A about.
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What's really happening here?
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It just absolutely takes your breath away and I could not stop crying.
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I wept so hard in the last 15 minutes of this film.
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I couldn't really stop.
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I would take a little break and then there'd be an image, a score cue, something out of left field I wouldn't expect and then I'd start crying again.
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This is the only film I can think of in recent
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memory where I was still actively crying walking out of the theater.
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You know, I saw this at TIFF with some friends and like walking down the hallway to the exit door, I had to work hard,
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you guys, to like start to control myself because I was like, oh, okay, Brian, in about 30,
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40 seconds, we're going to like meet up with some friends here and talk about the film.
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I have to like
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get this under control because boy does this movie hits harder than you could ever imagine
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and what's so great about all of
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that emotion for the viewer at the end of hamnets is
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that it's all earned right nothing feels forced or phony
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or saccharine like let's just blast a really sad score
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and you know have some close-ups of actors crying
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and oh my god you know like it's not like that in this film.
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It is in others.
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Like I've seen enough movies to know
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when you're being manipulated by the filmmaker in a way that that doesn't feel authentic, right?
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That's not the case with Hamnets.
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You know, this has a slow build in the first hour.
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There's a lot of time to get to know these characters and the relationships,
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follow their journeys and how sometimes it takes them apart from each other and then slowly brings them back together.
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You have to be somewhat patient in this movie.
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You have to let the narrative unfold on its own time.
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And I mean, the characters are so interesting, so lived in by these actors.
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This is one of the best cast films I've seen in a long time
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that you're always interested in seeing what they're going to do and say next.
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And as you get closer to that third act, like to the conclusion of this beautiful story,
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you start to realize how all of these elements of the
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plots of the characters everything how it's all going to culminate in this very emotional
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and satisfying ending i mean talk about sticking the landing to this story someone told me after the movie
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that like the final big sequence of hamnets it's one chapter
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in the book i think they might have like opened it up a little bit for this film version
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I am so happy it's not rushed at all.
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Like, it really takes its time at the end for you to sit with everything that's happening,
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how the characters are reacting to this very creative and also deeply personal artistic expression that,
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like, works its way into the characters' souls and their hearts.
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It is one of the finest endings I have seen to a movie in years.
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And what's so great is that the entire film is an absolute masterpiece.
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I loved everything about Hamnets from the storytelling
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which I've talked about to the performances the direction the cinematography
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the production design the score everything works exactly how it should
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in this nothing feels out of place I mean I guess
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some people could say it's a little slow at times you
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know this is not an action movie like it's a it's a period drama and it takes its time, but if you go with it and you really come to love the characters,
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are ready to take on this very emotional journey, there are very few films I have seen in the last couple years quite like Hamnet.
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It is an extraordinary work from Chloe Zhao, who of course has won an academy award for best directing for nomadland
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that film also won best picture she is absolutely back in
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the best director race for hamnets i think she's getting into
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that category i can't imagine her missing you know she does everything right
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and then some on a visual level on an emotional level like the performances she gets out of her actors.
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Chloe Zhao is one of the finest filmmakers working right now, and after Hamnet especially, I will follow her anywhere.
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She knew exactly how to tell this story, how to give the narrative restraints when it needed it, when to pull back, and
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when to move forward with some of the most emotionally devastating moments you will see in a film this year.
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Like she knows how to approach those scenes, not make the maudlin.
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I think a different filmmaker with this material, they might have pushed it too much.
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Chloe Zhao never does that.
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She lets everything play out the way it's supposed to.
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And I love the performances she got out of her actors.
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Jesse Buckley in the lead role gives the performance of the year.
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This is my choice guys for 2025, Jessie Buckley, Best Actress.
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Like, this is the performance of 2025.
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She is that good.
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It's not a flashy performance like Emma Stone in Poor Things, Mikey Madison in Enora.
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This is a much quieter performance, a softer, restrained performance, one of despair,
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one of great emotional loss.
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And what is so brilliant about Jessie Buckley's performance in Hamnets is how she is able to get across everything she's feeling,
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her emotions, without saying a word of dialogue.
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Much of her performance in this film is close-ups on her face as she is thinking and reflecting.
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And there could be moments in this movie where she is just like weeping, right?
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Like she's just like, oh my God, oh my God.
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She could have pushed things.
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She could have tried to go for that close-up of the tear going down her cheek, and she never does.
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She has this immense restraint in her performance
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that I thought made the performance and the character and the movie all the better.
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It feels so real and lived in every step of the way.
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The moment when she loses her son, her performance in that moment,
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like the highs and lows of how she deals with the aftermath, the immediate aftermath of his death.
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It is an absolute showstopper of her performance, a beautiful portrayal of grief in the most dire moments of someone's life.
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You see her anger, her regrets, you know, the thinking that she could have done something better, something different to keep her son alive through any means possible.
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She says a line, I think at one point, like, I would have ripped out my heart and ate it if it meant he got to live.
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So you really feel the love of this mother for her son.
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And you feel
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that love for him from her all throughout the rest of the movie leading up to
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that amazing ending where again a lot of the final 15 minutes is on Jesse Buckley's close up.
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And she could have pushed it.
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She could have tried to do more.
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And I was just so relieved and taken by her restraint near the end.
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And how she is managing her emotions through witnessing something of immense artistic magnitude.
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It is quite something.
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It is extraordinary.
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Everything about Jesse Buckley in Hamnet is an absolute masterclass in acting.
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And yes, I do think come March 15th, she is winning the Oscar for Best Actress.
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And Paul Meskel is also incredible in this film.
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You know, he got into the Oscars for After Sun.
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He's also really, really great in that.
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But this might be my favorite performance of his.
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You know, he's a little distant for the first hour.
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He's gone a lot.
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He's working on his plays.
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But like as the narrative goes along and he starts to deal with his own grief, how he turns to arts and writing to dig deep into his emotions,
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his feelings, like where his character goes by the end is also extremely moving.
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And Paul Meskel gives this character, this performance, everything he has in his soul by the end.
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And so he is also very, very good in this.
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I think he is going to get into Best Supporting Actor.
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I think he could go lead, like maybe.
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He's in enough of it.
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It could be lead.
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But I do think this is her story in a way more than it is his.
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So I think he'll be campaigned in Best Supporting Actor.
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And he'll probably be nominated.
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I mean, Hamnet is going to do very well this award season, you guys.
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It's going to be in the top three, basically everywhere.
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Like for picture, for director, for actress, supporting actor, and screenplay,
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adapted screenplay, it's going to be in the top three of each category of what could potentially win.
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You know, like right now, could I see Hamnet winning Best Picture?
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I can't.
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I think it's totally possible, you know, because it's like a period drama.
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It's slow a bit in the first hour.
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I'm like, maybe it won't win Picture Director.
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That's possible.
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I think Jesse Buckley is such a force in this film
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that it's going to be hard for me to imagine a
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reality someone else winning Best Actress from the Globes to SAG to the Oscars.
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You know, like there's still many movies to come, right?
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It's only September.
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Maybe there could be something later this year.
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But I think there's going to be so much love for this movie, even if it's not like everyone's number one choice of the year, number one choice and Best Picture at the Oscars,
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I can't imagine too many people having a problem with Jessie Buckley sweeping Best Actress.
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She is that good.
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So if the movie were to only win like one thing at the Oscars this next year, it's going to be Buckley.
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But there's so much to love about it, like going beyond the performances and the storytelling, the direction and stuff, like on a crafts level.
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This is absolutely extraordinary from the costume design to the production
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design the cinematography is a wow the look of this movie
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like every scene that's outside you know some of those early
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moments like in the woods like with all the greenery it's
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so luscious to look at the way the camera flows in
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certain scenes the way the camera doesn't hold back like in
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the death of the young hamnets like how Chloe Zhao shoots that scene.
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It's very intimate and very scary.
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And so there's like moments of beauty and wonder, moments of raw intensity that I thought worked really, really well in this.
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And then like the cinematography at the end.
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Oh my God.
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Like, holy cow.
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It's so beautiful to look at.
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This is absolutely getting into best cinematography at the Oscars.
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The score is also phenomenal, right?
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Just absolutely brilliant, especially at the end.
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You know, the musical cues in this film, it's never overdone.
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It's never too much.
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It's not like pounding you over the head like, cry, damn it, cry.
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Like it doesn't do that.
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Like it all comes from a very authentic place and it's in the movie just the right amount.
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This magnetic score, it's so great.
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The sound design in this is excellent.
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The editing, fantastic.
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I think it's edited like at just the right pace for this story.
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I think that works really well.
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And the entire ensemble cast.
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I haven't even mentioned some of the other actors in this movie.
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You have Emily Watson.
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You have Noah Jupe.
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You have Joe Alwyn.
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I mean, I don't think anyone but Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskel can get like individual Oscar nominations for their performances.
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Everyone's really good in it.
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some of them have like one scene to shine like like Noah Jupe especially like like it's possible maybe
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but right now I think it's just Buckley and Meskel
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but I do think at SAG this film will get into best ensemble
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and it deserves it right best cast at SAG
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and then I do think at the Oscars this also gets
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nominated for best casting I think that's probably going to happen as well so yeah I am over the moon about Hamnet.
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This is my current contender for the best film of 2025.
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I think it's that strong.
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You know, maybe I'll see something in the next few months
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that I put maybe just like a hair above Hamnet that could happen.
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You know, we are hearing really good things about one battle after another.
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I'm excited to see that in a couple weeks.
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And you know, like there's going to be some films in November, December, like Marty Supreme is coming.
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There is potential, I guess, for something maybe beating Hamnets.
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But right now, it's going to be difficult, I think.
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It is everything I hoped it would be and more.
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And the Jesse Buckley performance.
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Wow.
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I mean, just stunning work through and through.
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I can't wait for all of you to see this film, talk about this movie with your friends and family, share this wonderful film with everybody you know and love.
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I have not stopped thinking about Hamnet since I watched it two days ago.
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This is going to be one of the big films from TIFF that sticks with me long into the fall season, long into award season.
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Hamnet rises to the top, everybody.
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It is one of the greatest films I have seen in a long time, and it is 100% a masterpiece.
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I give Hamnet a 10 out of 10.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 284 sentences and 3431 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:08. The speaker talks at a natural 170 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- actress /ˈæk.tɹɪs/ (noun) — A female who performs on the stage or in films.
- narrative /ˈnæɹ.ə.tɪv/ (noun) — The systematic recitation of an event or series of events.
- extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/ (adjective) — Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual.
- emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ (noun) — A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
- grief /ɡɹiːf/ (noun) — Suffering, hardship.
- filmmaker (noun) — A producer or director of films/movies.
- illness /ˈɪl.nəs/ (noun) — An instance (episode) of a disease or poor health.
- sequence /ˈsiː.kwəns/ (noun) — A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series.
- artistic /ɑɹˈtɪs.tɪk/ (adjective) — Having or revealing creative skill.
- immense /ɪˈmɛns/ (adjective) — Huge, gigantic, very large.
- masterpiece /ˈmæstɚˌpis/ (noun) — A piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career.
- storytelling (noun) — The act and skills of presenting stories and tales.
- restraint /ɹɪˈstɹeɪnt/ (noun) — Something that restrains, ties, fastens or secures.
- pace /peɪs/ (noun) — A step taken with the foot.
- trailer /ˈtɹeɪlɚ/ (noun) — Someone who or something that trails (follows behind); something that is trailing.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- get into (verb) — To move into (an object), such that one ends up inside it.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- deal with (verb) — To handle verbally or in some form of artistic expression; to address or discuss as a subject.
- go in (verb) — To become obscured by clouds.
- see in (verb) — To show (someone) in: to introduce (someone) to the inside of a place.
- get out of (verb) — To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
- go for (verb) — To try for, to attempt to reach.
- live in (verb) — To reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.)
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 38 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, haven't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, aftermath /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/, thread /ˈθɹɛd/, theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, breathtaking /ˈbɹɛθˌteɪ.kɪŋ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/
- Long words — get the stress right: extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, intensity /ɪnˈtɛnsɪti/, nomination /ˌnɑmɪˈneɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like actress, narrative, extraordinary.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have seen · I've seen · has now been turned |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is based · was announced · been turned |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | somebody who really · man who sometimes |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.