Max Porter’s novella Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, a hybrid work of illustrations, dialogue and poetry inspired by Emily Dickinson’s line that “hope” is the thing with feathers, became an unlikely literary sensation in 2013. The stage adaptation, directed by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy, was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 2019.
In The Thing with Feathers, the writer-director Dylan Southern works hard to fashion the material into a pleasing film. It retains the book’s tripartite structure, with chapters for Dad, the Boys and Crow, while removing several literary elements, including the association with Ted Hughes.
This shifts The Thing with Feathers into a concrete depiction of grief, chronicling a widowed father’s psychological collapse after the unexpected death of his wife, glimpsed only in brief flashbacks.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the cartoonist father, delivering a possessed portrait of a man struggling to perform parental duties against an eroding emotional paralysis. The newcomers Henry and Richard Boxall portray his young sons. David Thewlis voices Crow, an imposing, intrusive manifestation of anguish, realised physically by a dedicated team: Eric Lampaert in a suit; the sculptures of Nicola Hicks; and Conor O’Sullivan and the prosthetic designers of Creature Inc.
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Crow arrives through menacing wingbeats and window strikes. He is simultaneously a manifestation of grief, a tormenter and a catalyst for the family’s arduous journey towards comprehension.
The film emphasises confinement: the dark, ramshackle family apartment – meticulously designed by Suzie Davies and shot by Ben Fordesman – becomes an extension of Dad’s neglect and stagnation. Zebedee Budworth’s score is muted and effective. Supporting characters, including Vinette Robinson’s childhood friend, attempt to penetrate the gloom.
Southern, who is best known for his music-themed documentaries Shut Up and Play the Hits, and Meet Me in the Bathroom, leans into the horror of Crow’s physical presence. Crow taunts, he caws, he stalks and, finally, he helps. It’s tricky material, but what the script loses by making an actual monster it gains in small, poignant details. The silence that descends over Dad and his in-laws at the Christmas dinner table says as much as the squawking corvid.
In cinemas from Friday, November 21st
