Benedict Cumberbatch plumbs the depths of grief in this adaptation of Max Porter’s novella

The Thing With Feathers

Source: Sundance Film Festival

‘The Thing With Feathers’

Dir/scr: Dylan Southern. UK. 2025. 98 mins.

‘Hope is the thing with feathers’ is a poem by Emily Dickinson; ‘Grief Is The Thing With Feathers’ is a flighty, wonderful novella by Max Porter, strewn with drawings, dialogue and poetry. The Thing With Feathers is a nobly-intentioned adaptation of Porter’s fragile memoir about the aftermath of the sudden death of his wife. Directed by Dylan Southern (Meet Me In The Bathroom), it’s remarkably well-acted, by Benedict Cumberbatch and the two young leads, brothers Henry and Richard Boxall, although the concept that soared in Porter’s book has its wings clipped by cinematic necessities. There’s much that is brilliant here, although the loss of nuance in translation from page to screen reduces a potent brew of emotions to more literally-depicted stages and consequences of pure, overwhelming, overwrought grief.

Cumberbatch’s full-throttle performance is the best he has been in years

Going from the page to big-screen may not seem like a reduction, but it is – the very basis of the titular feathers, for the giant Crow who manifests to taunt grieving widower Dad (Cumberbatch), has been cut, for example. Dad/Max was, as the millions of fans of the source material will know, writing a book about the poet Ted Hughes, called ’The Crow On The Couch’, when he summoned the bird into existence in his tormented anguish. Poet laureate Ted has exited the film stage left; leaving a single-minded and very dark trawl through one man’s grief, and the benign but distressing neglect of his children in the process. And a crow, of course, voiced by David Thewlis with the terrorising visceral spittle that characterised his Naked performance. Eric Lampaert plays its swooping physical manifestation (in the stage version of this, Cillian Murphy played both man and bird).

The axing of intellectual foundations, the darkness and laser-like focus on one man in severe pain may curtail the commercial fortunes of The Thing With Feathers after its Sundance bow (in Premieres) and European premiere at the Berlinale (in Berlinale Special). Grief may be the thing with feathers, but it’s also a process people want to avoid – unless they have to, or it’s in some way cathartic to their personal process. Luring them in will be Cumberbatch’s full-throttle performance — this is the best he has been in years – and the physicality of the piece, from his body’s oddly avian contortions to the summoning of the crow itself.

The cause of Dad’s grief, the sudden death of his adored wife, is a fact only briefly glimpsed in flashback – we never see her face. Perhaps he was always uxorious, but in his grief he has canonised his partner and the mother of his two forlorn young boys. The viewer can’t help but suspect guilt is contributing to these huge, paralysing emotions – did he neglect her? He seems to have been a fairly hands-off dad as well, so perhaps there is some regret at play aside from the crippling void of the loss.

Cumberbatch’s huge, black-eyed despair plays larger on the screen than the words on a page and it dwarfs everything – even the crow, who eventually arrives after some suspenseful Hitchcockian beating of wings to cut Max’s self-pity down to size. Expertly designed by Nicola Hicks, this crow is the violently mocking part of Dad who knows he could have been, should be, and ultimately can be, a better man.

The always-good Suzie Davies, on design, and DoP Ben Fordesman do a terrific job with Max’s extremely insular life: the London apartment which falls to pieces in his neglect is almost a player in the piece. They sometimes shoot into the light source with Dad and the boys in relief. At other times, the shabby, earthy furniture and carpets are lit by sunlight which also conveys a life lived in a warm cloak of haziness. A boxy aspect ration is a portal into this cave of almost-comfortable despair where Dad, predictably prone to hitting the booze, suffers waking nightmares.

Music choices can be really on the nose. Playing The Cure’s ’Without You’ is meant ironically, but not a full-choral rendition of ’In The Bleak Mid-Winter’ — a place the viewer is already well aware they are visiting without a musical prompt. Zebedee Budworth’s score, though, is apt and sensitive.

Like the book, the film is split into chapters between Dad, the boys and Crow, with the addition of a monster. Between that, and the characters of Max’s brother and publisher, The Thing With Feathers is very male-orientated — Vinette Robinson (under-used) plays a childhood friend of the couple in a film which can’t help but service the sainted dead wife trope; a person who often seems to be missed through the dirt of neglected domestic chores. These, though, are elements which stand out in higher relief in front of a krieg light – on the page, they can float around the peripherals. 

Although some will avoid, there are many, especially those who have suffered a devastating loss, who could find common ground here, with Cumberbatch’s fine performance as a person coming to terms with all he has lost. Above all, Feathers is a genuine tribute to that process.

Production companies: Lobo Films, SunnyMarch

International sales: MK2, intlsales@mk2.com / UTA 

Producers: Andrea Cornwell, Leah Clarke, Adam Ackland

Screenplay: Dylan Southern, from the novella ‘Grief Is The Thing With Feathers’ by Max Porter

Cinematography: Ben Fordesman

Production design: Suzie Davies

Editing: George Cragg

Music: Zebedee C. Budworth

Main cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Henry Boxall, Richard Boxall, Vinette Robinson, Eric Lampaert, Sam Spruell