Just as there are a hundred different ways to grieve, there are a hundred different metaphors for grief. A rain cloud. A shadow. A pit opening up into the earth. In "The Thing With Feathers," based on the 2015 novel "Grief is the Thing With Feathers" by Max Porter, grief is manifested by a giant, anthropomorphized crow, who alternately haunts and helps a family recover from the sudden loss of its wife and mother. The metaphor is apt, giving us keen insight into the grieving process, if at times a little belabored. With an all-in performance from Benedict Cumberbatch and a unique visual style, "The Thing With Feathers" is an inescapably compelling drama -- even if its concept is perhaps a bit more interesting than its execution.
Cumberbatch plays a character known only as Dad, a nod to the fact that fatherhood is the central point of his identity within the film. He's no longer a husband after the shocking death of his apparently healthy wife, and in addition to grappling with her sudden absence in his life, he now has to devote all of his attention to raising their two young sons (played by real-life brothers Richard and Henry Boxall). This task, something that came as second nature to him when his wife was alive, has become a mountain to climb. He is overwhelmed by grief, the feelings of inadequacy when he can't seem to manage the household as smoothly as Mom did, and guilt that he's letting his boys down. And to make matters worse, he is visited by a massive crow (voiced by David Thewlis, in a role that sounds unintentionally but disconcertingly like the Shame Wizard from "Big Mouth") who is determined to make Dad really feel his grief.