All three films -- Chloe Zhao's Hamnet, Clint Bentley's Train Dreams, Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly -- have been put forward by their respective U.S. distributors as 'For Your Consideration' (FYC) titles, which means that special publicity efforts are made to get them in front of the eyes of film critics and members of film guilds, so that they can consider them for awards.
What that means, for a member of a regional film critics associations, such as myself, is that we get to see dozens of films over a period of about 60 days via various means, preferably at in-person advance screenings, secondarily via online screeners, and thirdly via physical media, which is becoming increasingly rare. For myself, back in August, I began catching up with films I'd missed earlier in the year by watching them on various streaming services. (Frankly, I have more personal subscriptions than the average person.)
In a larger sense, what that all means is that as I watched a huge batch of films over the past couple weeks, a trend began emerging that I might not have noticed with less frequent viewing. Let's call the trend 'daddy issues.'
Hamnet
For much of its running time, Chloe Zhao's Hamnet felt like an absorbing study of Agnes, a woman (Jessie Buckley) who is left alone to raise her family and deal with the grief that consumed her because of the loss of two of her beloved children. The first, the younger twin sibling of her surviving child, died in childbirth; the second child lived for a few years before succumbing to illness.
Given that this was the 16th century, the death of children was, sadly, not unusual. Even into the early 20th century, this was not unusual -- my maternal grandmother lost seven of her 12 children in early childhood. The general attitude of the townspeople and relatives who surround Agnes support the notion that parents must simply carry on and provide for any surviving children the best they can.
Shouldering the pain of grief the best she can, Agnes carries on alone, but without her husband, who moved to The City to seek his fame and fortune (with her encouragement). Will (Paul Mescal) is a handsome fellow who loved Agnes deeply and devotedly. Yet he was A Tortured Artist, consumed with his dream of becoming a playwright and devoting himself to it with deep passion, to the neglect of his wife and family. He only needs a tiny nudge from Agnes to flee his family responsibilities and pursue his artistic pursuits. Even after their son dies at a young age, Will can barely be bothered to return for the funeral before quickly escaping back in London to funnel his energies into his blooming career.
In the third act, the film turns its attention from Agnes' grief to show how Will has been grieving. Unable to put his emotions into spoken words for his family, he pours his grief into words composed for others to speak.
In a remarkable, extended conclusion, we see Hamlet performed at the Globe Theater in front of a rapt audience, standing mere feet from the stage. Agnes pushes forward to the very front of the crowd, and in her face we can see all the emotions that her husband has been unable to tell her in person: his crushing guilt, his piercing grief, his haunting sorrow.
Train Dreams
Clint Bentley's Train Dreams follows a taciturn man who never learns to express outwardly any sort of emotion until he meets a cheerful woman who will become his wife.
Narrated throughout by Will Patton, the film identifies itself as a chronicle of a man in a certain time (early 20th century) and place (the U.S.) where many changes will take place over his lifetime. Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) has known hard times, and nothing but. Thus, he never speaks until he is spoken to, which suits his work (as a logger) and natural disposition (quiet, never talkative). He prefers solitude and the company of trees.
When he meets Gladys (Felicity Jones), everything changes. He never becomes loquacious; she does enough talking for the both of them. Yet he is not a reluctant lover. He gladly accepts his new role as a loving husband. When Glady gives birth to a daughter, Robert becomes a loving father. He puts their needs ahead of his own, and he is glad to do so. After Robert and Glady build a log cabin on a small piece of riverside property, deep in the forest, he imagines that they will live there together, forever.
Robert must go away for each logging season to earn enough money to provide for his family. One year he returns, and his family has been lost to an unimaginable tragedy. He was gone.
Unlike Will in Hamnet, Robert was not pursuing his own creative dreams. He was absent because he knew no other way to care for his family; his skills, his training, and his experience were all tied up in logging. And now it has cost him the very family that he held dear.
Robert is never the same. Unlike Will Shakespeare, Robert cannot pour out his grief into a stage play. He cannot write novels or compose music or even talk to someone about what he is feeling; all those things are beyond him. He is consumed with grief and guilt, overcome by the thought: If only I had been home, my family would not be lost. It's all my fault.
Jay Kelly
Unlike Will and Robert, world-famous Jay Kelly (George Clooney) has cruised through his adult years as a celebrity.
Now at the pinnacle of his career, Jay strongly suspects that the end may be near. He has enjoyed years of success at the box office, making one forgettable movie after another. After a chance meeting with an old friend, Timothy (Billy Crudup), however, Jay becomes unexpectedly wracked with guilt. Timothy accuses Jay of having stolen the role that he deserved -- and then also stealing his girlfriend.
Both accusations are patently ridiculous, of course, but lead to Jay beginning a long-overdue self-examination. Ducking out on a film that's due to begin shooting, Jay chases after his younger daughter on her trip to Europe with friends before she begins college, regretting all the years he has an absent father.
The sad truth is that no one else in Jay's life actually needs or misses him. As Jay's publicist Liz (Laura Dern) reminds Jay's manager Ron (Adam Sandler), both of them are paid to be part of his floating entourage; they are not friends, they are employees.
Ultimately, Jay Kelly is a much less-sympathetic character than either Will Shakespeare or Robert Grainger. He constantly skipped out on the childhood of his two daughters (Riley Keough and Grace Edwards), and so their formed their own personalities and are building their own lives, without his emotional support, yet with a great deal of suppressed anger over his inattention. That will not keep them from pursuing their own goals and desires, but why should they reach out to include a man who put his career ahead of his children?
On that point, Hamnet and Jay Kelly agree: fathers must live with the consequences of their actions.
Beyond these three, other 'daddy issue' FYC films could be included in this trend, such as Kleber Mendonca Filho's The Secret Agent, Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, and Mamoru Hosoda's Scarlet. All are worthy of further study and consideration; I've linked to our reviews of each below.