M Is For Middling In Lowthorpe’s H Is For Hawk (2025)

Hania Ahmed
15 hours ago
3 min read

H is for Hawk (2025) is a biographical drama film adapted by director Philippa Lowthorpe from the best-selling autobiography by the same name, published in 2014. The film follows Helen Macdonald, played by Claire Foy of The Crown fame, as she tends to a goshawk in the aftermath of her father’s death. The film tackles life after grief and the self-identification of the protagonist with her feral hawk.

Our protagonist, Helen Macdonald, is a Cambridge fellow who shares a love of the natural world with her father. The movie opens with her father saying goodbye to Helen’s mother as he starts a journey to London, in order to take more photographs for his collection of crossings of the Thames.

In Cambridge, Helen prepares to go out to dinner with her friend Christina, played by Denise Gough. She receives a call from her mother, stating that her father was found collapsed on a street in London. Here, the audio cuts out, and the camera captures Helen slumped against her fireplace as she dissociates from what she is being told.

The visual handling of grief within the film was commendable. The audience is treated to audio-visual tricks such as the cutting of sound, sharp increases in volume to signify Macdonald’s growing discomfort and close-up shots of the cast’s subtle expressions. Foy leads the cast in the portrayal of grief from behind a stiff upper lip – capturing the thin veneer of normalcy that separates one from real life after a devastating loss.

My main qualm with the film is in regards to the plot – we are pacified with magnificent open-air shots of birds gliding through Cambridge’s tangled landscapes, beautiful set-dressing in gorgeous churches and eye-watering performances delivered by a set of skilful actors. Yet, the script falls flat.

Macdonald’s novel seared with sharp, thoughtful descriptions of her inner dialogue. Without it, we don’t really know why Helen is doing anything at all. The two-month gap between her father’s death and the beginning of her goshawk training is jarring and does not serve the plot. If anything, it is strange to see Foy’s famous laughter and utter disregard of her grief immediately after we have witnessed her father die. Reflecting on the film allows one to picture how Helen jumping from an intense relationship (which doesn’t seem that intense, we are hardly given any depth) to training a goshawk can be a distraction from her grief, but we have no idea how she was coping in that two-month gap. To be confronted with grief and then minutes later see her laughing in bed with a man who the audience does not know is inharmonious, and doesn’t reflect the complexity and subtleties of Macdonald’s novel.

Reflections on T.H. White’s relationship with his goshawk and other early modern falconers were omitted entirely. We see Foy struggle to restrain her hawk, but we have no additional context as to why this really matters. The emotional depth elicited through memory sequences in the books faces a lukewarm replication in the film, but we are left to infer what we can.

We are told by Helen’s friend Stuart that goshawks are ‘psychopaths’ – but we don’t really see this. We don’t see Mabel – Helen’s goshawk – accidentally hurt Helen; we don’t understand Helen’s urge to control Mabel as a reflection of herself. Helen’s identification with the bird is not clear to us until Christina’s statement: ‘I am scared you’re overidentifying’. This exposition is flat and paints no real picture of Helen’s mental state.

The medium of film has a great success over the book in one aspect – Helen’s father’s photos. During her father’s eulogy, Helen plays a slideshow of his photographs. Seeing these images in the background, completed by the memory of her father discussing these, allows the audience to truly empathise with the loss of her father in all his audacious glory.

Ultimately, H is for Hawk (2025) is a tear-jerking, popcorn-guzzling, feel-good movie. The beautiful landscape shots, as well as the cast’s delivery, immerse the audience in the ups and downs of falconry, self-identification and grief. For fans of the book, however, I would give this one a miss – it omits almost all the important aspects of Macdonald’s narration, and I left the film simply wanting to reread the book.

Edited by Lara Walsh, Co-Film & TV Editor