Muddy Stilettos

Director: Philippa Lowthorpe



Cast: Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Josh Dylan, Denise Gough, Lindsay Duncan



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="76" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-15.48.55-1000x76.png" alt="4 out of 5 stars" class="wp-image-129224" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-15.48.55-1000x76.png 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-15.48.55-600x46.png 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-15.48.55-1536x117.png 1536w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-15.48.55.png 1974w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb.jpg" alt="Claire Foy in H is for Hawk" class="wp-image-129220" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



There are films you choose carefully, and there are films about grief you accidentally watch three weeks after your dad has died. H is for Hawk was… a bold choice. You may be wondering how I missed that Helen Macdonald’s best-selling 2014 memoir is not, in fact, an alphabetised nature book but a study in profound loss via falconry &#8211; and honestly, so am I.



It follows Helen (played heartbreakingly beautifully by Claire Foy), a woman knocked completely off course by the sudden death of her photojournalist father (Brendan Gleeson), with whom she shared a lifelong love of birds. Her response to grief? She buys a goshawk. As one does. What follows is not a gentle, Instagrammable journey of healing-through-nature. Helen shuts down her life &#8211; work, friends, family, basic self-care &#8211; and pours everything she has into Mabel, her beautiful, if slightly terrifying, pet hawk.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_and_Brendan-Gleeson_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb.jpg" alt="Brendan Gleeson and Claire Foy in H is for Hawk" class="wp-image-129221" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_and_Brendan-Gleeson_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_and_Brendan-Gleeson_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Claire_Foy_and_Brendan-Gleeson_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



Foy is frankly brilliant, playing sorrow as something bone-deep and exhausting rather than showy. Her performance will resonate with anyone who has grappled with depression or loss &#8211; not just those of us who have lost a parent however recent. The increasingly desperate interventions of her family and friends (Denise Gough, Lindsay Duncan, Josh Dylan) only underline Helen’s slow descent, until she loses everything including her job at Cambridge University, and her home.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Lindsay-Duncan_and_Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb.jpg" alt="Claire Foy and Lindsay Duncan in H is for Haw movie" class="wp-image-129219" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Lindsay-Duncan_and_Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Lindsay-Duncan_and_Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/h-is-for-hawk-Lindsay-Duncan_and_Claire_Foy_in_H_is_for_Hawk_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_rgb-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



Heavy stuff, yes, but thankfully this isn’t two hours of unbroken misery. The film has a sharp streak of dark humour: the hawk handover staged like a dodgy drug deal; a funeral director casually asking about coffin “themes”; and the genuinely brilliant moment when Helen turns up to a faculty meet-and-greet and just… stands in the corner with Mabel on her arm. Grief &#8211; as I have come to realise and the film quietly but brilliantly shows &#8211; is often profoundly awkward.



H is for Hawk is also visually stunning. Mabel in flight is utterly hypnotic. The cinematography lingers on quiet, intimate moments, like Mabel and Helen just looking at each other at home, then suddenly soars with the bird, making you feel both the freedom and the sharp unpredictability of nature. And yes, that really is Foy handling the hawk herself &#8211; she learned falconry for the role, because apparently some commitments have no upper limit!



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1200" height="1200" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy.jpg" alt="Claire Foy in H is for Hawk" class="wp-image-129270" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy.jpg 1200w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy-600x600.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy-500x500.jpg 500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/5013.jpg-copy-1100x1100.jpg 1100w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></figure>



It’s not an easy watch &#8211; and judging by the sniffles around me in the cinema, I wasn’t the only one reaching for the tissues &#8211; but it is a quietly powerful one. Intelligent, moving, and infused with dark humour. And though I won&#8217;t be taking up falconry any time soon (pause for a sign of relief), for a film about grief, and birds of prey, it’s surprisingly watchable. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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H is for Hawk is out in cinemas nationwide from Fri 23 Jan



Reviewer Claire Hool



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-the-mood-for-more">IN THE MOOD FOR MORE?</h2>



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FILM REVIEW: H is for Hawk (12A)

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