H Is for Hawk
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: January 23, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistBrian FarvourJan 23, 2026
Finding ways to cope with any significant tragedy is hardly new, but in the hands of Foy and Lowthrope, it is. Read full review
91
Original-CinKim HughesJan 20, 2026
While H is for Hawk is a genuinely lovely film — often visually beguiling, beautifully acted, and tender-hearted — it lacks dramatic punch, which may be the inevitable byproduct of a cinematic interpretation of a deeply introspective book that rooted the reader deep in the author’s psyche. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 23, 2026
H Is for Hawk concerns itself less with the healing of wounds, but rather with the prying open of them. Can we look so deep into the pulp that the fear of it eventually washes away? Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 23, 2026
A prestige drama it may be, but it’s at its best when it’s a little messy and wild, and content to let the feathers fly. Read full review
80
The TimesKevin MaherJan 23, 2026
Ultimately this protagonist looks to nature and to Mabel in an admirable attempt to reconcile the ubiquity of death, the brevity of life and the urgent, though possibly pointless, search for meaning. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeDec 11, 2025
Foy is terrific in a film which balances bruising candour about mental health issues against arresting wildlife photography and a fervent appreciation of the natural world. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonJan 22, 2026
What does work about H Is for Hawk (aside from Mabel, whose presence is enough to recommend the film) is its refusal to make grief facile or tidy, or to proclaim that healing must look the same for everyone. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 22, 2026
The film tracks the laborious training process of how anxious, heartbroken Helen forges a bond with Mabel, and it’s fascinating stuff. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comIsaac Feldberg Jan 23, 2026
The film’s strengths lie squarely with Foy, whose performance is restrained where it should be and revelatory at some moments you don’t expect. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 22, 2026
The flashbacks and overbearing music serve as this film’s emotional core, and the result rings false and superficial. Read full review
60
iFrancesca SteeleJan 23, 2026
H is for Hawk wants desperately to make you feel the raw blankness of grief and the healing power of nature, but in the end feels more like a kids’ wildlife documentary: beautiful but bloodless. Read full review
60
The Travers TakePeter TraversJan 23, 2026
In this slow but touching biopic, Claire Foy excels as an academic who buries her grief about her father’s death by caring for a predator goshawk, so both can relearn to fly. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyJan 23, 2026
The problem here is not insight but narrative stagnation. Too often H Is for Hawk confuses slowness with contemplation, repeating emotional beats and trumpeting parallels between Helen and Mabel. Read full review
60
Little White LiesJosh Slater-WilliamsJan 22, 2026
If the film occasionally falters with its relative lack of incident across nearly two hours, Foy’s performance – especially in the transfixing training scenes captured in long, unbroken takes – tells several stories on its own. Read full review
60
Time OutChristina NewlandJan 20, 2026
Part meditative exploration of grief in the wake of the sudden loss of her father, part exhaustive detailing of the process of training a complicated and challenging creature, the film adaptation hews closely to the same description. Read full review
60
EmpireMiriam BalanescuJan 20, 2026
A birdie biopic that’s too keen to avoid ruffling feathers, Lowthorpe’s film still boasts two brilliant lead performances — a magnificent Foy and an even more majestic Mabel. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 11, 2025
It’s a rare privilege to spend so much time with Helen and her charge, and the footage of Mabel (filmed by Mark Payne-Gill in the wild and DP Charlotte Bruus Christensen in dramatic scenes) hunting pheasants and so forth mesmerizes. But there’s arguably too much of it, dominating the film’s slightly excessive run time. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterAngie HanDec 11, 2025
As an appreciation of birds and our connection to them, it’s engrossing and endearing — a fresher take, certainly, than yet another weepie about dog or cat owners. But as an exploration of grief, it’s hindered by a 128-minute run time that spreads its emotional potency too thin. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureJ Don BirnamDec 10, 2025
Claire Foy’s performance alone is reason enough to see it. She soars in a role that proves once again why she is among the finest actors working today. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 10, 2025
Audiences might, by the closing credits, think they still don’t quite know what happens to Helen and Mabel in the end, or perhaps at any time, but then again real life can feel messy and unfinished in just this way. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichDec 10, 2025
The trouble here has less to do with verisimilitude than engagement; this story about the power and pratfalls of emotional projection simply doesn’t inspire enough feeling for us to see much of anything on either of its two blank screens. Read full review
50
The RevealScott TobiasJan 23, 2026
Only a scene where Helen defends her hunting trips with Mabel as “an honest encounter with death” suggests the tougher, more provocative movie that might have been. This one is mostly a genteel therapy arc. Read full review
40
Screen RantGregory NussenJan 21, 2026
No disrespect to Foy, who showed with The Crown just how capable she is of revealing entire histories through her open visage, but watching her go through the extremely repetitious (and, one supposes, accurate) steps of training a Eurasian Goshawk is exceptionally tiresome. H is for Hawk induces the same effect as taking a sedative. Read full review
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