The Thing With Feathers | Film Review

 

While trying to raise his children following the unexpected loss of his wife, a man (Benedict Cumberbatch) has to deal with the physical manifestation of his grief.

I heard about this film a while ago but it took me way too long to actually see it!

That said, I'm glad I finally saw it because I liked it.

From the first second, it feels really authentic. You never doubt that the characters are going through exactly what is being shown.

Depicting grief in this way is really powerful. Even before the grief becomes physical, we really get to understand the characters through the way they grieve.

The actors are great. Cumberbatch is fantastic in the role, and the child actors, Richard and Henry Boxall, are perfect and very authentic.

There are times when the metaphor feels heavy-handed, particularly when the crow makes a speech. I don't think things needed to be spelled out for the audience like this. In fact, it took something away from the overall idea to make things too obvious.

But other than this, the writing was great.

It was so interesting seeing the grief from different perspectives. It highlighted the fact that grief affects different people in different ways.

I found the children's point of view the most powerful - seeing the way they lost both of their parents rather than just their mother is heart-breaking.

But the third point of view is definitely the weakest.

So overall I liked what the film was going for, but I feel that it was a lot more successful in the first half of the film than the second half.

7/10