Emma Donoghue

The exquisitey crafted H is for Hawk is British filmmaker Philippa Lowthorpe’s profoundly moving and utterly engaging cinematic metaphoric meditation on mourning and the transitory nature of life and nature, itself. The script, cowritten by Lowthorpe with Emma Donahue and based on the autobiographical memoire by Helen Macdonald, is structured to keep you thoroughly emotionally captivated, while simultaneoulsy providing sufficient space for the story to seep into your psyche and generate contemplation of its meaning. Powered by Claire Foy’s brilliant performance, H is for Hawk is unforgettable. It is a must see!

It’s a tall order to translate to the screen what’s delicately layered on the page. But what the film has is Claire Foy, as a version of memoir writer Helen Macdonald, a prickly nature-lover and academic who, in the wilds of grief over the sudden death of her beloved father, photojournalist Alisdair Macdonald (Brendan Gleeson), adopts and trains a goshawk she names Mabel. Mabel is a dangerous predator who must feed on birds and animals and whose icy stare is actually scary. An emotional support pet she is not.

Early in the new narrative release H is for Hawk, an expert in the field of falconry calls goshawks the “perfectly evolved psychopath”. Why, then, does research Cambridge fellow and mourning daughter Helen Macdonald want to commit to training one? The answer is examined through a cinematic adaptation of Macdonald’s award-winning memoir of the same name, chronicling the sudden loss of her father and her subsequent connection with a goshawk. Audiences are witness to Macdonald’s (Claire Foy) highest and lowest points on her journey of loss, from shock to anger and depression to an inevitable point where she must move forward into acceptance. Though audiences are witness to some of grief’s lowest lows, this human and hawk and this chronicle of the way they move through nature, are a study in the transformational power of the human/animal connection.

I am not sure co-starring in a feature film with a bird of prey was on celebrated actress Claire Foy’s bingo card, but she soars to the occasion in H is for Hawk. The very British biographical drama is written and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and based on the New York Times bestselling memoir of the same name from Helen Macdonald. Foy is Helen, an academic and a daddy’s girl. When her father unexpectedly dies, Helen retreats into her home and into herself. Trying to keep her father alive by recreating their shared love of birds and nature, Helen buys a goshawk she names Mabel and spends her days training the bird to hunt. Mabel becomes Helen’s security blanket of sorts helping her to rediscover the beauty of life.