In 2024, Benedict Cumberbatch starred in “Eric,” a middling limited series from Netflix in which he portrayed a puppeteer who began having a running dialogue with an imaginary puppet dreamed up by his child.

Now, the highly regarded British actor is front and center in “The Thing with Feathers,” a middling drama in which he plays an author of graphic novels who talks to an imaginary (probably), often human-sized crow who spends most of its time taunting Cumberbatch’s character.

Honestly, “middling” may be a kind way to describe the dark and dreary “Feathers.” In theaters this week, it’s a tough watch.

However, it’s the kind of film you want to appreciate. Adapted by writer-director Dylan Southern from Max Porter’s 2015 award-winning novella, “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers,” the film is a bold examination of grief. It’s a take-no-prisoners affair that, at times, thrashes about wildly, for better or worse. (Yes, it’s often for the worse.)

Cumberbatch’s character, known as Dad, is now the single father of two young boys — portrayed by twins Richard and Henry Boxall, 7 years old at the time of the filming of this, their screen debuts — following the death of his beloved wife.

“You had an amazing mom, boys,” Dad tells his sons. “Let’s never forget that.”

His struggles to raise them alone begin immediately, with seemingly small issues — such as having only mom’s soy milk, which they think is gross, to go with their cereal — turning into ordeals. They won’t listen to him when he tells them to do something, such as clean up after themselves or take a bath before bed, and they think he’s even weirder than he was when Mom was alive.

He tries turning to work for a distraction, but the drawings he creates are of the decidedly macabre variety.

Soon, Crow — embodied by a costumed Eric Lampaert and voiced by David Thewlis — enters the picture, derisively calling Dad “English Widow” and offering what could be seen as tough love. He’ll be around for as long as he’s needed, he says

The picture is clouded by the fact that the boys also interact, at least at times, with Crow. Surely, this is a commentary on shared grief, but it muddies the viewing experience.

And speaking of a muddy viewing experience, “Feathers” is, as shot by director of photography Ben Fordesman, so dark that it was hard to pick up visual details while watching a home screener on a reasonably high-quality 4K television. It almost surely will look better on a theater screen, but at home, it conjured thoughts of that “Game of Thrones” episode from 2019 that so many viewers complained about being too dark.

Plus — and this is, admittedly, a personal annoyance — the film is presented in the narrower 4:3 aspect ratio. It’s a choice made in the name of making the cinematic experience feel more intimate and claustrophobic, of course. That approach has been effective at times, such as with 2023’s “Maestro,” but here it mainly adds to the film being a chore to watch.

Cumberbatch (“Doctor Strange,” “The Power of the Dog”) puts his back into the assignment, but his performance isn’t so strong that “Feathers” becomes remotely as compelling as it needs to be.

The best performance belongs to Thewlis (the “Harry Potter” franchise, “Landscapers”), who is entirely ominous and haunting in voice work.

The movie clearly is a passion project for Southern, whose experience lies in the documentary genre. In the film’s production notes, he says he was given a copy of the book as an adult — years after losing his best friend as a teenager, which was followed by another friend dying — calling it “one of the most cathartic experiences of my life” and saying it gave him “insight into feelings that men (and perhaps particularly British men of a certain age!) don’t get taught to deal with.”

Perhaps this movie, with its mean but oddly therapeutic crow creature, will offer some viewers a certain kind of comfort.

However, we couldn’t help but find occasional moments when Dad talks about his grief to other humans — his brother, a therapist, a friend of his wife — that are “Feathers” at its most relatable and engaging. That’s a big problem.

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‘THE THING WITH FEATHERS’

1.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language and some bloody violent content)

Running time: 1:44

How to watch: In theaters Nov. 28

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