Whether or not you enjoy writer-director Dylan Southern's new film THE THING WITH FEATHERS will probably depend on how far you buy into his visual rendering of the high concept at the heart of the beautiful book upon which it was based. Because novelist Max Porter chooses to tell the story of a grieving widower and his two small sons by imagining their grief as a large black crow who pokes, prods and even punches them into accepting their devastating loss. What can be imagined from the page often appears clunky or laughable on screen and I was desperately worried that seeing a man-sized crow with a thick Northern accent wouldn't work. But I am delighted to say that for me, at least, it really did.
I found myself deeply engaged with this small family in its brutal fight for survival. Benedict Cumberbatch is in almost every scene and perfectly embodies a dad who wasn't hands on before his wife's death and struggles to navigate family breakfast. And what superb work by casting director Shaheen Baig to find two young boys - Richard and Henry Boxall - to play the two sons - who are rambunctious and confused and sad and angry and tender by stages.
Southern's script, closely following the book, captures the banal and sometimes insulting cliches of the grief industry and the well-meaning but prying acquaintances. How many times was Cumberbatch's dad asked "how he was doing?" How does one even put it into words? But these tone-deaf inquiries are balanced by Sam Spruell's cameo as a caring brother, Vinette Robinson as a good friend, and of course, Crow, voiced by David Thewlis - masterful as always.
I came through the film feeling both that I really knew and cared for this family, and also that I had seen a raw and vulnerable exploration of grief. The book is wonderful and this film probably comes as close as one can to translating it to the screen.
THE THING WITH FEATHERS has a running time of 98 minutes. It played Sundance and Berlin 2025.
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