The Thing with Feathers

Premieres

Struggling to process the sudden and unexpected death of his wife, a young father loses his hold on reality as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.

Two-time Sundance Film Festival alum Dylan Southern’s (Shut Up and Play the Hits, 2012; Meet Me in the Bathroom, 2022) adaptation of the acclaimed Max Porter novella Grief Is the Thing with Feathers artfully emphasizes the transformative and terrible momentousness of one family’s bereavement. The film’s inspired execution of the physical manifestation of their grief on screen creates an exquisite visual rendering of the sinister reality dominating the family’s unkept home and shattered lives.

Benedict Cumberbatch submerges himself in his performance of a shell-shocked father while the film juxtaposes his character’s altered reality with that of his two vivacious boys. The sons, played with sensitivity by Richard and Henry Boxall, grapple with both the enormity of their loss as well as their unmoored father’s attempts to carry on parenting them alone.

Run time: 104 minutes

Language: English