Film review: how Goshawk helped give shape and meaning to life of woman numbed by grief at loss of her dad

The film movingly explores the bond between a college lecturer and a Goshawk 

THERE has been quite a bit of buzz in birding circles about the film H is for Hawk - not least because of the dramatic sequences of an individual  Goshawk in rapid pursuit of its quarry.

In one, a rabbit is the prey; in the next, it is a cock Pheasant.

Other birds that feature (mercifully not falling victim to the raptor) include Rook, Blackbird, Robin, Great Tit and (in Stranraer Harbour) Cormorant.

This is not a film about birding, though many of the scenes  will strike a chord with many birders, especially bird-photographers - for instance, in the line: "When you look through the viewfinder, everything else falls away." 

Fleet Street photographer and birder - Brendan Gleeson plays the father

It is more a film about hawking - with its central theme about how acquiring and training  a hawk (which she names, Mabel - from the Latin, amabilis, meaning lovable) becomes the obsession  of Helen Macdonald a lecturer at Jesus College, Cambridge.

In some strange way, it seems to give purpose to her life following the sudden death from heart failure of her much-loved father, Alisdair, a photographer with the Daily Mirror.

The action is based on the true story recounted in a book of the same title by Helen who co-produced the film.

It has to be said that many parts of the book are heavy-going, but, despite the undergoing sadness, the film, by contrast, is tightly-edited and crisp.

The movie is also more successful in exploring both the touchingly tender bond between daughter and her father (it survives just as strongly after his death) and the warm, but less affectionate, relationship with her mother and brother.

There is some fine acting in the supporting roles, notably by Lindsay Duncan, as  the mother, but it is the performance of Claire Foy as Helen Macdonald which really excels - not least  because, to fit the role, she had to learn to engage with a live Goshawk, a large and energetic prey with fierce bill and talons.

There is a rough honesty about how Helen is portrayed. Far from being a paragon of soggytenderness she has plenty of ragged edges - she is self-centred, chain-smokes, swears  and  plays rap music at top volume in her late father’s car where, further to her discredit, she seems careless at the wheel.

With,  a somewhat slovenly approach to life and slightly cruel laugh, this character is not someone you would necessarily want as a reliable friend.

But  it is impossible not to sympathise with and admire a woman trapped in grief and loneliness, yet simultaneously able to find meaning to life through  her affection towards a bird that in no way can reciprocate.

Looking at the credits, the extent of  female involvement in the making of the film is conspicuous, and, perhaps in a nod to diversity, even the GP who diagnoses Helen’s depression is changed from a man in the book to a black woman in the film.

Plaudits to the director, Philippa Lowthorpe, who ensures the narrative is taut and almost entirely free of sentimentality apart from one moment when the Goshawk seems to be casting a tender eye on its owner as she sleeps.

Also creditable is a lecture hall sequence, late in the film,  which explores the ethics of hunting with raptors and whether, as in times gone by, there might today be a role for interaction between humankind and birds as an alternative to watching them with detachment from afar.

On a technical note, which might only be of interest to birders, the camera used by Helen’s father was a Nikon.

But mercifully, there is no obtrusive  'product placement' , for instance, with the spotting scope or with the Zeiss Jenoptem 10x50 binoculars (which seem extraordinarily clunky by modern standards' because the brand names are not shown.

It should be noted that though the theme is underscored throughout by grief, the message is emphatically not one of despair. 

The last word, spoken in a flashback sequence as Helen’s father asks her to pose for a picture is "Smile".

And before the credits roll, we see on screen (and are invited to interpret) the words written in 1373 in  Revelations of Divine Love by the ascetic, Julian of Norwich  (1343-1416): "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well". 

What happened to the Goshawk, for which Helen had paid £800? 

It is not revealed in the film, but according to the book, the bird "flew for many more seasons before a sudden untreatable infection with aspergillosis - airborne fungus - carried her from her aviary to the dark woods where dwell the lost and dead."   

Wild Goshawks in pre-courtship display - opening sequence to the film

                                                  

Important birder's accessory - spotting scope