Tags: blog, film, drama, essential, 2026
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday April 26th, 2026
Grief as a muscle
The word I can't get out of my head after watching this film is muscular.
Jessie Buckley's Agnes holds the focus of the story like a rugby player cradling the ball, stiff-arming any attempt to divert the narrative towards her husband, powering through notions of artistic metaphor or allegory.
Agnus' story (and it is her story) is down to earth to the point where the dirt under finger nails is a mark of her character. She's practical and resourceful, always having a plan, always working towards a goal. Her husband is not the dreamer you might expect him to be, he's her counterpoint, not her opposite. But still, she's the driving force of the marriage.
Which is why it's so affecting when it goes wrong and there's nothing she can do to fix it. Watching somebody who's spent their entire life making things right and ensuring everything works out, suddenly left completely helpless by random chance is heartbreaking. The powerlessness of it is a full-bodied hit.
Even the way Buckley portrays grief feels strong. Her breakdown is shown not as a weakness but of a muscle being flexed. All that love and all that aching and nowhere to go, her sinews stretching with the strain of it, trying to crush the pain.
A lesser film would lose focus and dabble with the greatness of the play, of the artfulness of it. And indeed it nearly fumbles it when Will does the 'To Be, Or Not To Be' speech, seemingly put in just to remind viewers which play it's supposed to be inspiring. But thankfully the turnover back to Agnes is swift and decisive.
The final scenes involving the play are magnificent. Whilst it is about the transformative power of a well told story, the focus remains squarely on it's effect on Agnes. It's still her story and it drags you through that fourth wall completely and utterly.
