{"id":390717,"date":"2025-09-02T01:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/390717\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T01:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:52:09","slug":"claire-foy-is-enraptured-with-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/390717\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Foy Is Enraptured With Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cLooking for goshawks is like looking for grace: it comes, but not often, and you don\u2019t get to say when or how,\u201d writes Helen Macdonald in \u201cH Is for Hawk<\/a>,\u201d a book I picked up by accident and which proved to be the greatest tool I had when one of my own parents passed away. When someone around you loses a loved one, it\u2019s all but impossible to know what to say. I recommend reading \u201cH Is for Hawk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Macdonald, that most eloquent of memoirs emerged from the death of her father, photographer Alisdair MacDonald. But what Helen really did to process her grief was to adopt a goshawk. The book is partly about what a wild and uncommon thing that is to do, but it\u2019s mostly about what was going on in Macdonald\u2019s mind through the process (which involves all kinds of engaging digressions into falconry, literature and the life of the writer T.H. White, who wrote \u201cThe Goshawk\u201d). Sometimes our brains need something completely different to concentrate on, while our hearts do their mending.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a movie, \u201cH Is for Hawk\u201d \u2014 which stars Claire Foy<\/a> as a headstrong and occasionally hard-to-take version of Macdonald \u2014 might have a similarly comforting effect for some, although it elides so much of what originally resonated with me (namely, the language, for which Macdonald has a remarkable gift). What is gained in exchange is a visual dimension entirely lacking from the book, as director Philippa Lowthorpe<\/a> supplies footage of Foy enraptured with her raptor, whom she names Mabel \u2014 so much footage in fact that the 128-minute film stops being a work of philosophy and reflection, and becomes instead a more conventional portrait of a human with an exceptional pet (a word that ruffles Helen\u2019s feathers, as she considers Mabel to be more of a companion).<\/p>\n

\n\tFine. One thing I learned at the Telluride Film Festival<\/a>, where the film premiered, is that no one \u2014 not a single person I queried \u2014 had read Macdonald\u2019s book. So instead of bemoaning what\u2019s missing, it\u2019s best to recognize what is there. On that front, \u201cH Is for Hawk\u201d remains a moving account of one person\u2019s eccentric interest in falconry, which she takes up in response to her father\u2019s death. Brendan Gleeson plays \u201cAli Mac\u201d as a benevolent parent, the only person who ever fully understood her.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn flashbacks so warm, his passing may start to depress you too, Ali displays an artistic curiosity in all things: first the natural world, as he introduces young Helen to birding, but also the strange ways that humans have of inhabiting it (he proposes a project of photographing every bridge between the Thames\u2019 source and the sea). \u201cRoom\u201d screenwriter Emma Donoghue makes a recurring theme of Helen\u2019s unique relationship to other living creatures, as in a scene where she scoops up a large spider and gently carries it outdoors.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoments later, Helen gets the call from her mother (Lindsay Duncan) where the tone of her voice delivers the news of Ali\u2019s death before the words are spoken. You can\u2019t prepare for how the loss of a parent will hit you, and in Helen\u2019s case, it all but derails her academic career \u2014 her teaching responsibilities, the fellowship she\u2019s applying for. Instead of wallowing in her misery, the movie accompanies her, like best friend Christina (Denise Gough), who checks in regularly with unconditional support.<\/p>\n

\n\tMacdonald never admits as much, but there\u2019s a strange phenomenon by which losing a parent gives you wings \u2014 or, to torture the metaphor, allows you to fly in ways you wouldn\u2019t have dared when they were alive. Helen had always loved birds, an interest she associates with her dad, but it\u2019s only after her father passes that she feels compelled to adopt one. And not just any bird, but a dangerous predator. If Michael Crichton was right, this winged killer could well have been the next step in the evolutionary chain: a connection to something primeval.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the opening scene, Lowthorpe shows Helen studying wild goshawks through binoculars \u2014 looking for grace, you might say. The animals\u2019 appeal is undeniable, but few would take the leap from observing to inviting a goshawk into one\u2019s home. The movie takes us through all the stages \u2014 not of grief, but cross-species connection \u2014 from a shady exchange with a breeder (who advises \u201cmurder\u201d as the key to managing these lethal creatures) to the long, slow process of gaining the bird\u2019s confidence (presenting fistfuls of raw meat, while avoiding eye contact). Lowthorpe unhurriedly reflects Helen\u2019s sense of wonder, taking the time to admire the bird\u2019s plumage and the deadly weapons that are its talons and beak. Mabel is indeed magnificent, but also an all-consuming responsibility \u2026 and, let\u2019s face it, distraction for Helen.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a rare privilege to spend so much time with Helen and her charge, and the footage of Mabel (played by two different birds, filmed by Mark Payne-Gill in the wild) hunting pheasants and so forth mesmerizes. But there\u2019s arguably too much of it, dominating the film\u2019s slightly excessive run time. As we grow impatient, her friends and family express their concern. According to Macdonald, at that moment, Mabel gave her purpose and a chance to process: \u201cI\u2019d closed the door on the world outside. Now I could think of my father.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie gives audiences room to do the same, as ideas Macdonald articulately explored over hundreds of pages are suggested by the nuances of Foy\u2019s performance. The role required her to learn falconry, as there\u2019s no faking Foy\u2019s interaction with the animal, which bates wildly at first (twisting and flapping to escape her grasp), but returns to her glove once it trusts her. Helen obviously sees something of herself in the animal, though Lowthorpe doesn\u2019t impose any one interpretation. Instead, Helen is allowed to be irritable and anti-social, chain-smoking and snappish, without the filmmaker casting judgment.<\/p>\n

\n\tA mental health angle reveals itself late in the film, which is helpful to acknowledge (especially for those seeking comfort for equivalent losses in their lives). But I can\u2019t help wishing that \u201cH Is for Hawk\u201d had incorporated more of Macdonald\u2019s related discoveries, from Ken Loach\u2019s \u201cKes\u201d (about a boy and his bird) to revelations about \u201cThe Once and Future King\u201d author White, a queer hero whose biography is at least as interesting as hers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLooking for goshawks is like looking for grace: it comes, but not often, and you don\u2019t get to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[135437,77,135438,3943,135439,135440,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-390717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-claire-foy","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-h-is-for-hawk","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-philippa-lowthorpe","13":"tag-telluride-film-festival","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115132206127016411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}