With his book “Grief is the Thing with Feather” published in 2015, the title of which ironically alludes to Emily Dickinson's poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”, the British writer Max Porter made a much praised but also very bulky and controversial debut. His 120 -page -short text, which was later adapted as a play with literary cross -references, and deals with the mourning work of a father and sons after the mother's death, is anything but a typical drama piece: meets the cryptically arranged work Lyrically demanding prose on the coarse dialogues, enigmatic metaphors and staccato -like sentence fragments. A truly wild intersection that reads like a poetry slam.
Under the direction of Dylan Southern, who has so far made a name for himself with documentary films, Porter's fabric now finds the way to the cinema – but the director and screenwriter gives the fragmentary and nested template in his feature film debut “The Thing with Feather“A much more classic dramaturgy. His expressionist shower fairy tale takes us into the house of the grieving father and his two sons for a good hour and a half, who are confronted with a huge crow (!) As a new mourning companion overnight. In his best moments, this is creepy, thrilling and original – but sometimes also quite worn out and even kitschy on the home stretch.
The father (Benedict Cumberbatch) unfortunately under the loss of his wife, but must be strong for his two sons who have lost her mother.
A nameless family man (Benedict Cumberbatch) has to process a difficult stroke of fate: After the unexpected death of his wife (Claire Cartwright), he plunges into deep grief with his sons (Richard Boxall and Henry Boxall) and increasingly loses relation to reality. One day, the professionally active man in his house is confronted with an oversized, human -like crow (Eric Lampaert), which is determined not to leave the four walls of the family. Do the three form the fearsome creature that could have originated from a sketch of the now single father, just one? In any case, one thing is certain: you have to face the merciless crow as well as your grief …
In the (quite sparingly sown) cheerful moments of “The Thing with Feathers” you almost think yourself in the “kangaroo chronicles” of Marc-Uwe Kling in 2020: naturally pulls a large animal into an Otto normal consumer -Household and rolls the life of his human roommates on the left. But while the kangaroo, which can also be located politically on the left, is primarily devoted to the consumption of schnapps bundle, heated debates and the eternal struggle with his penguin heritage enemy, the crow has arrived here for mourning therapy. Wherever the bird comes from, the film leaves as much as the literary template, but the animal believes to be a guide, tormentor, friend and enemy of the family in the right place. The black biped nesting nests and does not go away.
A lot is easier to understand in the film than in the book
The three-person-and-one bird structure of the book is expanded here and there for the canvas adaptation here and there. For a few moments, for a few moments, the best friend Paul (Sam Spruell), who in the meantime, is taking the sons, or Amanda (Vinette Robinson), a close caregiver of the deceased mother. The bulky, very confused passages of the book, on the other hand, take place in the film almost exclusively in the off: the mostly cursed verbal effusions and fairy tales of the bird have little influence on the plot. The clear common thread benefits as well as the division of history into the chapters “Dad”, “Crow”, “Boys” and “The Demon”, which focus on the people mentioned instead of changing the perspective without stop.
Stylistically, Dylan Southern drives in the fairway of prominent role models: crows and other poultry have not only been a kind of animal in the horror cinema since Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds”. Also in the Stephen-King film “Es” a huge crow becomes the nightmare of a tormented child-and when the oversized creature lurks for the first time in the hallway and spreads her fingers in the half-darkness, the summary of “Nosferatu” can hardly be overlooked. The game proves to be efficient and goosebumps with light and shadow, which is picked up in the opening credits and in the comic drawings-black ink on a white background-and driven elegantly to the top. In more than one scene, sudden light acts as a sudden show stopper – for example when the father is pushed into the corner in the stick darkness and suddenly awakens from his daily dream at the glaringly brightly lit.
The crow grades gradually
Many of these thread moments, which are taken around a few Jump Scares and Haunted–House-Tricks are only indicated, but Southern only indicates, but does not dissolve, which also applies to the appearance of the horror creature for a long time. Until the middle of the film, the oversized monster in the fully stated, claustrophobia is never entirely in the picture, but only allows us to (and through) his relentlessly boring eyes, its sharp -edged beak or its spreading feather dress. If the crow finally fits into the constricting 4: 3 format, the narrow budget does a little demolition: because because of elaborate effects has been dispensed with, “The Thing with Feathers” runs through a personable, visually more sober retro touch. It is the scaryest when we only hear the gloomy voice of the human bird and don't see him.
“Sherlock” and Marvel star Benedict Cumberbatch confidently maneuvers the mentally unstable father through the film and can throw his immense acting potential in the opening sequence in which he sits crying on the sofa. His increasingly thin -skinned, soon the control of the father, who tries to give the children the necessary support, almost alone wears the film. It is the linchpin, its tedious and convenible mourning work with the animal sparring partner the emotional heart of history. The comparatively short chapter, which devotes itself to the sons, serves above all to vary the perspective of the film, which seems over long distances, such as a chamber game and to illustrate with an exposing scene on the kitchen stove, where the border between reality and imagination runs.
A disappointingly defused final
The father's crash rarely becomes so tangible, and while some empty spaces increase the attraction of the film through scope for interpretation, it becomes too concrete on the home stretch: on the furious showdown with humans, monsters and fairy tales, a kitsch's final chord follows the width Strokes so dark and tragically arranged “The Thing with Feather” surprisingly shallow and conciliatory ends. As a result, a lot is lost in force and aftermath. Not every dark shower fairy tale needs a happy ending, not every wound heals in mourners in harmony. Rather, grief often releases late and mercilessly – if you have lost a loved one in your life, you know that too well.
Conclusion: Dylan Southern's feature film debut “The Thing with Feathers” is a dark and metaphorically charged Horror maternity ballad, which runs dramaturgically in much more orderly lanes than her literary template. However, really new ideas are in short supply – and the kitsch -like final also robs the show fairy tale on the home stretch.
We saw “The Thing with Feathers” at the Berlinale 2025, where he celebrated its European premiere as the “Berlinale Special Gala”.