'H is for Hawk' Review: A Meditation on Grief That's Visually Gorgeous While Equal Parts Cold and Moving
- Dan Bremner
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Dan Bremner - February 6, 2026
British prestige dramas like this always feel like a coin toss for me. They can either land as painfully earnest, BBC Sunday-night fodder, or something genuinely affecting and quietly beautiful. H is for Hawk, based on the 2014 memoir from Helen MacDonald, sits somewhere between the two. At its best, it’s a visually stunning, thoughtful meditation on grief and isolation, at its weakest, it feels distant and emotionally restrained to the point of coldness. It never fully soars, but it does enough right to rise above mediocrity.
Claire Foy is the film’s greatest asset. She delivers a deeply internalised, raw performance as Helen MacDonald, portraying grief not as melodrama but as something private, disorienting, and quietly consuming. Foy excels at communicating emotion through stillness, letting silence and physicality do the heavy lifting. Her portrayal feels honest and grounded, even when the script occasionally struggles to give her character momentum. It’s a performance that carries the film more than once, pulling it when the narrative threatens to drift.
The film is at its most compelling when it leans into the relationship between Helen and the hawk, Mabel. The falconry sequences are hypnotic, majestic, and beautifully observed, capturing the tension, frustration, and fragile trust involved in training such a wild creature. Mabel herself is a genuinely captivating presence, never anthropomorphised or sentimentalised, and the film is smart enough to let the bird remain unknowable. These moments feel meditative rather than dramatic, and they’re where H is for Hawk feels most honest and emotionally resonant.
Since I have not yet read it, I can't compare it to the memoir, but what the film seems most interested in is grief as a static state rather than a dramatic journey. Helen’s loss doesn’t escalate or resolve in conventional ways, instead lingering in quiet routines, silences, and repeated behaviours. This approach feels truthful, but it also means the film resists emotional peaks or release, keeping the audience at a deliberate distance. For some, that restraint will feel meditative and respectful, for others, it may come across as emotionally withholding, as though the film is content to observe sadness without ever fully letting it break open.
The restraint is also where the film often left me cold. While its refusal to sensationalise grief is admirable, Philippa Lowthorpe’s approach sometimes feels emotionally muted to a fault. The pacing is slow and repetitive, and the film often circles the same emotional beats without deepening or evolving them. There’s a sense that it’s more interested in mood than narrative, which will work for some but left me feeling oddly detached at times, rather than moved.
When it comes to the visuals, the naturalistic cinematography from Charlotte Bruus Christensen makes excellent use of open landscapes, muted colour palettes, and soft, overcast light, giving the film a calm, contemplative atmosphere that suits its themes. Shots of Mabel in flight or stalking prey are genuinely striking, grounding the film in the physical world even as Helen retreats inward. It’s a restrained but confident visual style that elevates the material considerably. It's a shame I saw this on a cinema screen where the projector or bulb was clearly on the way out, dipping the darker scenes into something where you had to squint to see what was happening.
The supporting cast does solid work, particularly Brendan Gleeson as Helen’s father in flashbacks, bringing warmth and quiet tenderness to a role that could have easily felt schematic, but instead casts a large shadow over the entire film. These moments provide emotional context and grounding, but they’re fleeting, and the film largely remains an intimate two-hander between Helen and Mabel.
H is for Hawk is a gentle, visually rich, and thoughtfully acted exploration of grief that values subtlety over catharsis. It doesn’t always find the emotional lift its subject promises, but Claire Foy’s performance, the extraordinary presence of Mabel the Hawk, and the film’s calm, observational beauty make it a worthwhile watch.
'H is for Hawk' released in cinemas on January 23.
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