Review: H is for Hawk – Coping on a wing and a prayer

Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe
Starring Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Denise Gough, Lindsay Duncan 

7.5/10

When Helen (Claire Foy) is struggling to deal with her father’s (Brendan Gleeson) death, she finds herself fleeing to an old hobby to seek solace. Buoyed by a memory of a shared birdwatching experience that her father gave to her when she was young, Helen seeks out a goshawk, but not merely to watch but to train in falconry. Described as nature’s perfectly adapted psychopath, Helen seeks to train this evolved hunter, from the drawing room of her flat, while struggling with her own grief and depression.

Based on the 2014 memoir of Helen Macdonald, this is a beautiful study of grief and the maladaptive process we go through attempting to deal with it. H is for Hawk is a film of subtleties, its talented cast being capable of conveying a lot with gestures or a small inflection on line delivery. This is also accentuated by the direction and exceptional photography. Grief is demonstrated by isolation, as the shot composition becomes claustrophobic, tightening on Foy as the world closes off for her.

The frame is often focused tightly on her, often in close-up, and only really opening up when her hawk is involved. It’s easy to see why the character is freed by the activity with a lot of sumptuous nature photography placed on screen. In fact, regardless of how you feel about the ethics of falconry, it’s impossible to ignore the grandeur of the goshawk hunting, and it is captured to great effect in the first hunt sequence.

Foy’s performance conveys this wonder but also how she is losing herself in it as she seeks a connection, often smeared with blood and claw marks on her face. She projects a desperate need to be involved in the hunt, a fear of losing the animal, and a tight body language and flat tonal range when around others. All this is given room to breathe by the film’s two-hour runtime, but it feels well (if somewhat gently) paced.

In this she’s certainly backed up by the supporting cast. Gleeson forms an effortless bond with Foy, forging the parental mentor relationship in a few minutes of screentime. Similarly, Lindsey Duncan demonstrates in a few ill-chosen words the friction in the mother-daughter relationship while still presenting a caring and affable character. Finally, Denise Gough is the suffering and supportive friend, in a seeming act of atonement for her character in Andor.

A slow, thoughtful character study, occasionally punctuated by some extraordinary nature photography (with a small amount of digital effects), H is for Hawk is an engaging look into loss and coping.

DAVID O’CONNELL