H is for Hawk

H is for Hawk is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name. Claire Foy plays Helen MacDonald, an academic in England who is about to lose her residency and so must give thought to her professional career. This moment coincides with the death of her father, a famed photojournalist with whom she was very close. In a neurodivergent pique of dealing with her emotions, she decides to adopt and train a goshawk, something she has never done specifically, though she has been trained to work with raptors. Naming her new bird Mabel, the two embark on a year of getting to know and trust one another. In the meantime, family and friends become concerned about her increasingly erratic and other-than-caring-for-the-bird irresponsible behavior.

Brendan Gleeson and Lindsay play her parents, Gleeson only in flashbacks. The scenes with Foy and Gleeson are the highlight of the film. As Helem, Foy creates a person who is easily identifiable. Based on a memoir, there was much to draw from, but Foy infuses her role with much tension, both outward and deeply ingrained. This is someone in great pain, full of confusion and anxiety, who has just lost the person who most centered their world. It is a performance that nearly perfectly straddles the line between broad and delicate.

It is a pity that such a wonderful cast and terrific pair of performances are lost in service to a sometimes rote and predictable script. Yes, this was a memoir, but none of the more artistic aspects of that work, none of the portions allowing for comparison/contrast between Helen’s life and work, and between literature and history, are present. Therefore, much of the deeper resonance of the work is absent and we get instead a tender yet goofy tale about a struggling academic in the throes of depression who took in a hawk to help her grieve.

Courtesy Roadside Attractions

This is a film, as such, that did not require a two-hour run time. Despite some truly stunning photography of nature, including great closeups of feathers and interesting compositions involving birds of prey, the film is missing that gear, or element which would take it from good to great. It is a film full of empathy, telling a straightforward story about a very unusual person, in a way that is not cloying. For that, it deserves credit. But this is not a film that will go down in history as particularly creative or daring.

IF this sounds like a negative review, it is not. The act of watching the film is one that runs briskly and is largely very enjoyable. This is well made and has some passion to it, but very little of that translates to anything, at its core, that we have not seen before. There is an honesty here about depression that is sort of refreshing, but it is such only because too many films offer a very heavy hand and this film elects a lighter touch where the viewer is able to watch and draw conclusions for themselves.

Indeed, the act of showing rather than telling is the film’s greatest strength and is the one way in which it is truly cinematic. There is rather fine visual storytelling here. Philipa Lowthorpe, who co-wrote the film with Emma Donoghue, has a fine eye for details and for keeping small things moving and interesting. Hers is a functional approach that focuses on characters over flash but is perhaps a bit too reverent to the script. Had the makers of the film been a bit more daring, and not as respectful of the material, had they tried to dig deeper, like the memoir itself, they might have made something other than a very good, entertaining film.

Grade B 

H is for Hawk is now playing in theaters