H could also be for “Helen”.

In an effort to grieve for her father’s passing, Helen MacDonald buys a hawk, and attempts to train it.

Based off the memoir of the same name, H is for Hawk is directed by Philippa Lowthorpe (Swallows and Amazons, The Crown) and stars Claire Foy (First Man, The Crown), Brendan Gleeson (Banshees of Inisherin), and Denise Gough (Andor). A smaller British production, with several studios behind it including Film 4. The film has a very grounded, homely feel to it. Shot on real locations in the UK, it feels warm and lived-in. The story is about life, death, and how people can fail to cope with the passing of a loved one.

We follow Helen MacDonald (Foy) who is a lecturer of sciences at a prestigious English university. Her father (Gleeson) is a famed photographer, and has a wicked sense of persistence and exploration of life’s many facets. This includes wildlife, in which the two bond briefly over watching hawks. But when Helen receives the news that her father has passed away, she is unable to cope. Her life crumbles and she feels lost. In a peculiar move, Helen then buys a hawk in a way of remembrance. But not any hawk, a goshawk.

Is this merely a means to grieve? Is the hawk helping, or actually hindering Helen’s mental health?

The film is a surprisingly emotion-less experience, much to the contrary of its synopsis. But this is in fact the point. H is for Hawk is a very British movie at heart. Set in 2017, we have a young woman silently self-destructing with the inability to confront grief.

Early on, the film has her receive the news and from then on, she is stonily passive or completely isolated. Her support group of friends and family cannot get through to her. Self-help books do nothing. She drives around in her dad’s old car. So the purchasing of a goshawk seems to enliven her again. Despite taking offence at her mother describing the hawk as a “distraction”. A goshawk, as the film describes, is a very difficult bird to tame and care for; a genuine killer. Yet Helen is resolute, without reason, that this is the bird she wants.

The film is very good at slowly revealing the total isolation Helen puts herself in. Despite efforts in taming the bird and living with it in her house, she loses all perspective of humanity in doing so. She puts her whole life in jeopardy. All the while, memories of her father continue to strike her.

The film is, undoubtedly, a very morose experience. Helen risks everything by pouring every bit of her energy into this wild creature. There are some moments of levity. Mostly centred around the goshawk (named Mabel) and other people reacting to her. There’s some especially good facial expressions from Denise Gough, as Helen’s closest friend. Much of the lightness is subtle. Rising bubbles bursting a flat surface of ennui.
It is a real bird too, obviously, from a production such as this. There is a real sense that this animal is a barely-restrained killer. Scenes between Claire Foy and the bird are obviously safe, but there are moments of apprehension for her. She’s alone, and this creature could easily maim her if it wanted.

That said, it is a beautiful bird.

I can’t say that I was hugely moved by the movie, overall. It doesn’t rake the audience over the coals, or have devastating emotional scenes. It is about the subtle, and the resoundingly British, ways of bottling emotions. I suspect it will affect audiences differently. It is very successful in displaying someone’s struggle with grief and loss. Showing that strange limbo of seemingly empty moments, strange behaviour, and unusual fixations.