The Thing With Feathers Movie Review (2025)
A very heavy drama, The Thing With Feathers, about a man mourning the death of his wife while caring for his children and being visited by a large crow, is a phenomenal representation of despair.
When you have experienced a loss, there is a spectrum of emotions. If the person was an acquaintance or a friend of a friend, you may feel sadness or sympathy, ruminating on the person’s life for a few days. But when it is a person close to you, it is as if your world has been struck by a meteor. Nothing looks or feels the same, and there is no one to help guide you through the tumultuous shiftings in your mind.
The Thing With Feathers is about a man who is grieving the loss of his wife’s recent death. Now alone with his two young sons, he begins to see a large crow in his apartment. As other people try to reach out to the man, he hides away, trying to deal with the incredible grief he is experiencing. The crow becomes a frequent companion, taunting him, playing games with the children, and lashing out.
This is a weighty drama that delves into psychological and visual horror, but only by ways of the man being attacked by the crow and the crow being attacked back. This is not a “scary movie” because you know where this battle is coming from. Darkness surrounds dad (who has no other name) both literally and figuratively, and everyone gets literal cuts and scrapes as they navigate their mourning.
The representation of grief vs. despair is huge in this film. The dad (played by a marvelous Benedict Cumberbatch) is living through the torture of despair, unable to wrap his mind around any way to survive and knowing that he is not the father that these children need. He sees them in pain after losing their mother, but he is so hopeless that he can only experience his own anguish. Time jumps all over, people and places stop making sense, and he is being tormented by a crow that will not leave him alone.
The Thing With Feathers is based on a book and broken up into different sections, with different characters telling the story. The dad, the crow, and the children each take a turn, but it all stays within the same narrative.
Later in the film, the song, “Flirted With You All My Life” by Vic Chesnutt plays. I had never heard it before, but the lyrics (like, “Oh death, oh death, oh death. Really, I’m not ready”) gave me goosebumps as the clouds cleared. It’s a gorgeous choice.
I have never watched a movie that so viscerally describes the overwhelm and foreign feelings that come with losing a dear loved one. It is its own kind of desperation that you have to endure until you eventually find an acceptance for what is now a new part of you. The Thing With Feathers understands something that most of us can’t put into words. An exceptionally presented piece.
Runtime: 104 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? I got choked up
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Available: Currently in theaters
