Film Review – H is for Hawk

In 2014, author Helen Macdonald released her memoir, “H is for Hawk,” which explored an emotionally turbulent year for the woman, who handled the loss of her beloved father through the strange ways of falconry, giving her a unique distraction as she dealt with so much. Screenwriters Emma Donoghue and Philippa Lowthorpe (who also directs) elect to bring such an experience to the screen, dramatizing the roughness of Helen’s state of mind and her special relationship with a Eurasian goshawk. It’s the stuff of a television movie, but “H is for Hawk” tries to be a tad more sensitive about the character’s state of mind, giving actress Claire Foy room to feel around a rattled headspace while the writing explores relationships and acts of isolation. The feature offers an unusual partnership between a woman and her bird of prey, and emotional moments are mostly earned in the endeavor, which makes sense of the central crisis, frequently going deeper into memory to help strengthen its view of personal loss. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com