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PARK CITY, Utah — Grief has taken many forms in film history. From the haunting depiction of family trauma in “Hereditary” to the changes Riley’s anthropomorphic emotions undergo as she ages in the “Inside Out” films, grief is a theme that transcends genres and filmmaking styles.

Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, “The Thing with Feathers” explores the tumultuous process a father and his sons undergo after his wife dies. Led by an excellent performance from Benedict Cumberbatch and supported by visual storytelling, writer-director Dylan Southern tells a complex story about grief and the different ways people deal with a tragic loss.

Based on Max Porter’s 2015 award-winning psychological fiction novel, “Grief Is the Thing With Feathers,” the film follows an unnamed man (Cumberbatch) and his unnamed sons (Richard and Henry Boxall) as they must find a way to recover from the death.

The father tries his best to retain normalcy in his parenting by making his kids breakfast, taking them to school and reading bedtime stories, but something is clearly off within their relationship. He can’t keep up with the responsibilities and eventually loses his sanity. A mysterious spirit, representing the father’s grief, begins to follow him around, mocking him for his inability to deal with his wife’s death.

At first, the entity is just a shadow and a voice (David Thewlis) the father can’t escape, whether working at home or out grocery shopping. Cumberbatch brings the perfect manic energy to this performance, emphasizing how haunted the father is by the spirit. He constantly twitches and looks over his shoulder, trying his best to ignore the spirit, but to no avail.

The line between reality and the father’s psychological fantasy is blurry throughout the film. He interacts with the spirit as if it exists in the real world, but there are times when the spirit exists in a more dream-like sense.

When the father is out buying food for his family, he tries to fight off the spirit by constantly saying it isn’t real. But the store walls close around him as the spirit yells at the father for being so weak. Though it’s a fantastical scene, the father’s despair is real. He starts to break down as the spirit’s shadow gets closer before he wakes up in line to check out, confused about what happened to him. The father has a difficult time dealing with his grief, and his struggle is heightened in a terrifying, imaginary way.

Southern’s intimate storytelling connects the audience with every emotion the characters feel. It’s difficult for them to overcome the loss of their mother and wife, and each of them deals with their feelings differently.

While the father is grieving heavily, he refuses to let his sons see his pain, thinking it will help normalize the situation. The sons, meanwhile, are much more active in their grief, not listening to their father at all. The family dynamic suffers with the father out of control. It’s through this chaos the spirit can haunt the entire family.

The spirit’s shadow and voice quickly transform into a man-sized crow, named Crow (Eric Lampert, voiced by Thewlis) who walks around the family’s home. How each person interacts with Crow tells viewers how the characters learn to deal with their grief.

Everywhere the father turns, Crow taunts and forces him to confront the grief he’s suppressing around his children. There’s even a physical altercation between the two, where Crow leaves the father bloody and beaten for trying to ignore him.

Contrastingly, his sons seem to embrace Crow and learn to spend time with him. To the kids, Crow is a fun, interesting friend, who only wants the best for them. The father is amazed at how the relationship between Crow and his children has formed.

The Boxall brothers do an incredible job of interacting naturally with Lambert in the crow costume. They find wonder in him and embrace Crow’s role in their lives. The children aren’t scared of Crow and actively learn to live with him.

Seeing how well his children live with their grief, the father’s attitude toward his pain begins to change. He opens up about the sorrow he’s feeling over his wife and uses their shared pain to find a greater connection with his sons. Crow becomes less of a nuisance in his life, and he begins to embrace the struggle his family is going through. The loss of his wife will always stay with the father, but he must learn how to live with it in the healthiest way possible.

In the film’s final moments, the father takes his sons to the beach to spread their mother’s ashes. In a heartbreaking performance, Cumberbatch breaks down in tears as he says a final goodbye to his wife. It’s an acceptance of both her death and his grief, and Cumberbatch perfectly displays the moment’s difficulty.

The sorrows turn to smiles when his sons run over, saying, “I love you, I love you,” toward both parents. The joy on Cumberbatch’s face is beautiful and ultimately shows how the father and his sons grew together despite this tragedy.

Throughout the film, Southern deftly presents grief as a difficult but necessary process. Crow’s turn from a haunting spirit to a supporting presence in the family’s life is an important representation of how people can learn to live with their grief. Cumberbatch’s strong leading performance and Southern’s superb visual storytelling make “The Thing with Feathers” an intriguing and emotionally satisfying watch.

Published on January 29, 2025 at 9:09 pm