H For Hawk, based on Helen MacDonald’s eloquent memoir about grief, is a moving guide to processing loss. The film and the book follow Helen unravelling mind as she tries to distract herself after the death of her father by adopting a goshawk.
Academic Helen (Claire Foy) is not the type of woman to wallow in grief and talk about her emotions. There is no past trauma, no tragic back story, she is just not wired this way. When her beloved photographer dad suddenly passes away (Brendan Gleeson), Helen tries to move through the pain. She doesn’t have the language to communicate how she feels about the worst loss imaginable, so she doesn’t use it.
It’s Just One Woman And Her Build Against The World
H For Hawk is an uncomfortably realistic depiction of grief by someone who doesn’t know how to process emotions. Externally, she appears to be handling the loss well. She still attends her Cambridge University teaching fellowship, hangs out with her bubbly Australian best friend (Denise Gough), and even finds the time to date a handsome art dealer (Arty Groushan). Yet, underneath the surface, she is changed for the worse on a molecular level.
When she finds that her current life and hobbies aren’t enough to numb the pain, she decides to adopt a goshawk named Mabel. She and her father had always bonded over their love of nature, especially watching birds of prey. Although she never says the words, there is a sense that having a goshawk in her home allows her to keep a little bit of her father around.
Mabel isn’t a pet to her, the bird becomes Helen’s whole world. She sees her as a “hunting partner” who she can face the world from. Helen might be training Mabel to be a little more comfortable around humans, but she is also learning from the hawk how to be strong and ferocious against life’s difficulties. The pair slowly form a symbiotic relationship, where one needs the other, and there is real heart between the woman and her bird.
An Emotional Tale About Finding The Tools To Handle Grief
H Is for Hawk is directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and co-written by Lowthorpe with Emma Donoghue, and takes the best of Macdonald’s memoir and eliminates some of the more niche hawk-related passages. Lowthorpe and Donoghue take the core of her story about grief and amp it up to its most emotional potency.
While it removes the more academic focus, the film doesn’t ignore the beautiful way Macdonald writes about nature. DP Charlotte Bruus Christensen captures the English landscape and its most beautiful. Mabel soars above the lush forests and green fields. Even dusky Cambridge looks beautiful through Christensen’s eye.
There are two types of British films about grief. They are either overly sentimental and earnest, or they are bitterly realistic. H for Hawk is the latter. It never delves into mawkishness, and it never becomes overly sentimental. In true British tradition, the story never loses its sense of humor. Death and grief can be silly, messy, and ultimately make you want to laugh. Brits, when faced with uncomfortable conversations, laugh, and this national habit is excellently executed here. This sense of humour is especially on show when Helen and her brother (Josh Dylan) have to hold back fits of laughter when the funeral director asks if they want a themed coffin before brandishing a brochure of tacky designs.
Claire Foy brings the stiff upper lip of Queen Elizabeth II to H for Hawk, reuniting with Lowthorpe who also worked on The Crown. Foy is nuanced enough of an actor to let her emotions seep into her performance, rather than acting them out in an unnatural performance. She not only has to play a believable grieving daughter but also a woman who feels entirely comfortable around a goshawk. Not only does she convince as someone training a bird of prey, but she also takes on the role of someone slowly building a relationship with a goshawk.
Although predominantly met through flashbacks, Brendan Gleeson’s Alisdair dominates the film. Alisdair is instantly a lovable character, bold and unafraid, you can see why his loss would be felt so deeply by those around him. He is entirely alive, blundering through country lanes to take photographs, setting himself seemingly impossible goals, always a glint of mischief in his eye. He is someone who taught Helen to live, which is why it’s so much more painful that she must do it without him. Lindsay Duncan also adds pathos as the matriarch, concerned that her daughter is not grieving in a suitable way. Her and Foy need minimal scenes to convey their strained mother/daughter dynamic and how it differed from the special bond she shared with her mother.
Helen’s bond with her larger-than-life dad is a type of love so rarely seen on-screen. The father and grown son relationship is frequently depicted, yet the bond between a dad and his only daughter is sometimes skipped over in cinema.
H for Hawk is a slow build of an emotional little film. With all the talk of wild prey and bird maintenance, the film lures you into thinking it’s going to be about a woman with a pet goshawk. In fact, it’s a slow exploration into processing loss and facing mental health issues. The writing slowly lets the emotions wash over you, never ramming sentimentality in your face. The subtle unravelling of Helen’s mental health is a powerful reminder to people to seek help before things escalate out of control.
A lesser film would keep the depiction of mental health shallow, ignoring the complexities of grief and loneliness. Yet, H for Hawk is honest enough to admit that distraction does not equal overcoming, and you need to walk through the tunnel to find the light on the other side.
H is for Hawk recently played at the London International Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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