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January 16, 2026

The crying game: what Hamnet’s grief-porn debate says about women, cinema

Hamnet and H Is for Hawk fuse themes of loss, birds and elemental female emotion. But whose fault is it if you remain dry-eyed?

The crying game: what Hamnet’s grief-porn debate says about women, cinema

TL;DR

  • The article differentiates between emotionally manipulative 'grief-porn' and authentic 'grief-art' in cinema.
  • Films often portray women as feeling grief more profoundly, connecting it to nature and intuition, as seen in 'Hamnet' and 'H Is for Hawk'.
  • The use of birds as symbols of grief and death is a recurring, and sometimes criticized, motif in recent films.
  • The article suggests that humor and the acknowledgement of male grief are often excluded from these portrayals, which can be a litmus test for 'grief-art'.
  • The director of 'Hamnet' noted that feminine consciousness draws strength from intuition and interdependence, a concept applied to Agnes's grief.

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