Benedict Cumberbatch is terrific in The Thing With Feathers – a drama about grief that occasionally dips its toe into horror.
PLOT: After the sudden death of his wife, a grieving father (Benedict Cumberbatch) starts to believe that a giant black crow is menacing him and his two sons.
REVIEW: The Thing With Feathers offers star Benedict Cumberbatch yet another impressive showcase, with him riveting as a father collapsing under the weight of uncontrollable grief. It’s his first major film since The Power of the Dog. It’s a heavy watch but is an interesting counterpoint to recent mother-focused parental dramas such as Nightbitch and If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You (which I also saw at this year’s Sundance), as it tackles the weight of parenthood from the father’s perspective, and also uses a surreal twist. While Cumberbatch’s unnamed father never thinks he’s turning into a dog, like Amy Adams in Nightbitch, he does start to believe he’s being haunted by a giant, human-sized crow voiced by David Thewlis.
Based on the graphic novel “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers,” writer-director Dylan Southern (Shut Up and Play the Hits – a well-received doc about LCD Soundsystem) plays with genres, with this playing (somewhat) in the horror wheelhouse, with Cumberbatch’s emotional demons becoming a reality. Cumberbatch is incredible as the heartbroken father, perfectly evoking a man who cannot even fathom how to move on in his life. While he loves his two kids (played by siblings Richard and Henry Boxall), he’s also overwhelmed by their own experience with grief, with one sibling acting out and the other becoming needier. Soon, the crow that haunts Cumberbatch, who comes right out of the graphic novel he’s illustrating, begins infecting the whole family.
Yet, The Thing With Feathers eventually starts to wear a little thin, with the hopelessness of Cumberbatch’s grief and the complete lack of levity making the movie come off as a touch oppressive. Sporting an austere 1:33:1 aspect ratio, The Thing With Feathers eventually starts to dip its toed more and more into the horror genre, with the surreal aspect of our unnamed protagonist’s life being given more and more weight as the film goes on.
While Cumberbatch’s show, the movie can’t help but be stolen somewhat by Thewlis’s crow, who mostly seems sinister but also has some compassion. Given the low budget, the crow isn’t depicted with CGI but rather by a person in an elaborate suit, and this low-tech take works well, as it gives Cumberbatch and the kids something tangible to play off of. It’s also elegantly shot by Ben Fordesman, and the genre aspects might make this somewhat more marketable than a straightforward indie drama.
I must admit that I might have enjoyed The Thing With Feathers more had I seen it outside of a film festival setting. It’s a movie that demands a certain emotional stamina, and after seeing a large selection of mentally wrenching films, The Thing With Feathers was almost too much of a downer to take in. Even still, on a technical level, the film is impeccable (even if it feels a little long at over 100 minutes) while Cumberbatch is at his very best.
