Claire Foy stars in a measured adaptation of Helen Macdonald’s memoir, where mourning unfolds through solitude and a fierce bond with a bird.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
How do we endure grief? Does “time heal all wounds?” Or do the losses pile up and eventually cripple or numb us? The screenplay for “H Is for Hawk” by Emma Donaghue (“Room”) and three-time BAFTA winner Philippa Lowthorpe (“The Crown”), who also directed, based on the award-winning 2014 memoir by Helen Macdonald, leaps around in time, beginning with a flashback to when Helen Macdonald (Claire Foy, “The Crown”) goes bird-watching with father Alisdair Macdonald (Brendan Gleeson). He’s a suit-wearing, esteemed newspaper photographer who has captured everything from Charles and Diana sharing a kiss to “Ronnie Kray’s grave” while dangling from a helicopter.
We’re in Cambridge in 2007 in the film’s present time. Alisdair dies suddenly, collapsed alone in the street. Helen’s mother (Lindsay Duncan), whose name is not revealed, will make the funeral arrangements. Helen, a lecturer at Cambridge, where the film was shot on location, will deliver the eulogy. Her brother, James (Josh Dylan), will provide other support. Helen teaches while completing her degree. She’s been offered a posh spot at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. The lease on her university home is ending. Her best friend Christina (a very good Denise Gough) is very attentive for good reason, we surmise. Did I mention that Helen, whose age is not clear, has a history of mental instability? Her father’s death hits her very hard. It may be why she suddenly wants a “goshawk.”
“H Is for Hawk” is a very special film in regard to its connection between a human character and an animal. Not since Chloe Zhao’s 2017 “The Rider” has a film’s action been so full of such interaction. Foy, who must have nerves of steel, and the animal with its formidable, flesh-rending beak and talons, spend much time in close quarters. Helen wears gloves, of course, and secures the bird with a cord. But Foy’s face is at times only inches away from the creature, which often tries to fly away, powerful raptor wings flapping, but the cord is straining. Couldn’t they at least have given Helen glasses? Foy is alone with the raptor for almost as much screen time as the driving scenes in the film. In Cambridge, Foy smokes behind the wheel of her father’s vintage British Ford station wagon, swerving away from and directly at pedestrians and bicyclists alike on narrow, winding 15th-century-sized roads.
Is Helen single, straight, gay or divorced? She has a date with a handsome man that ends in bed the next morning. But he cannot move to Berlin for three years, so that is that. Or was he spooked by all the “self- help” books? Helen keeps a scope aimed at her backyard through her kitchen window so that she can spy on visiting creatures. She shops for her goshawk online, of course. After meeting the seller in what looks like a drug deal, Helen takes her Finnish and German hawk home for the first time. She examines it closely. She weighs it every day. At first, the glorious thing won’t eat.
A visiting Christina tells Helen that her place now resembles a “fetish dungeon.” Helen takes the hawk, which she dubs Mabel, for walks in public places. Excuse me, may I pet your hippogriff? Will Mabel clasp a baby and fly off with it? Are there laws concerning raptors in public places? What does the Cambridge Department of Fish and Wildlife, if they have one, have to say?
We get a flashback of Helen taking her mother and father to visit Cambridge with all its medieval arches. Alisdair cannot stop talking in the arch-roofed library. Is Mabel a substitute for Helen’s missing father? Well, he didn’t kill rabbits and eat ’em raw, did he? The eulogy still needs to be written.
The problem with “H Is for Hawk” might be described as “P is for Predictable,” and this wonderful cast cannot fix that. Is Helen finding herself or falling apart? I have not read Macdonald’s memoir. Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones”), listed as an executive producer, once planned to play Helen. Is Helen “over-identifying” with Mabel? Am I under-identifying with Mabel and with Helen, who becomes more and more reclusive, neglects herself and eventually ends up sleeping in a cardboard box? Did someone mention, “medieval mystic abbesses who lock themselves up?” Quote the 14th-century mystic Julian(a) of Norwich, “All will be well.” But will Helen get out of the box?
‘H Is For Hawk’
Rating: PG-13 for some strong language and smoking.
Cast: Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Lindsay Duncan, Denise Gough
Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
Writers: Emma Donaghue, Lowthorpe
Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters
Grade: B
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