H Is For Hawk

H is for Hawk is a biographical drama produced by Film4 and based on the 2014 memoir written by Cambridge academic Helen McDonald. The film, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, deals with the awful depression Helen (Clare Foy) falls into following the sudden death of her beloved father, played by the supremely engaging and roguish Brendan Gleeson. As a way of hanging onto to the memory of her father, Helen decides she will train a Goshawk, a beautiful but difficult bird of prey.

The last time I saw Clare Foy on film, was in the Crown, where with her clipped tones she superbly channelled the patient and dutiful young Queen Elizabeth. Here she does an equally wonderful job with the chain smoking, opinionated Helen. At the beginning of the film Helen is riding high, with an offer of academic post in Berlin, which she hasn't got round to applying for. Then she receives a phone call from her mother, informing her that her father has had a heart attack at work and is dead. She had just been speaking to him, so it is all too hard to process. When colleagues and family show concern, she insists that she is fine, but it is clear that she isn't. This makes it difficult, however, for others to help her. The film very convincingly portrays what depression must be like both for the person going through it and for those around them. This makes for an immersive but not a very feel-good cinematic experience.

Even Helen's relationship with the goshawk feels more obsessive than inspirational. It is clearly her way of escaping from reality rather than helping her to cope with it. The snapshot memories of her father, lighten the film and one wishes there had been more of these. He is shown to be a joyous maverick, a news photographer and an autodidact, who is immensely proud of his academic daughter's success. These interludes help the viewer to understand the great loss Helen has experienced and why she might turn in on herself the way she does. I have to admit, however, that my sympathy lay more with her family and colleagues who have to cope with Helen at this time. The heroine of the film must surely be Helen's best friend, Christina (played by Denise Gough) an Australian academic. She really demonstrates what true friendship means as she sits in the rain waiting for her friend to open the door, or packing for her when she can't manage it.

At one point in the film Helen explains that her loss is so profound because her father was the only person who really 'gets her'. As a Christian and it being a true story I just wished Helen could have received the consolation of faith, knowing she had a Heavenly Father who totally 'gets her' and being eternal would never leave her the way her human father sadly did.

The photography is lovely particularly the soaring flights of the goshawk over the Cambridgeshire fields, which we get to share in as Helen trains Mabel. The viewer also learns, albeit vicariously, about what is involved in training a goshawk. One cannot help but be impressed by Clare Foy's falconry skills, which she presumably had to learn for the part! An interesting film but you need to be in the right mood to watch it!

See the official trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ29BBXfN64

On release 23rd January