Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Hawk Is Dying, The

EMAILPRINTStrand Releasing

Hawk Is Dying, The reviews
48
8.7 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 9 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Julian Goldberger
Harry Crews (novel)

Directed by: Julian Goldberger

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 30, 2007
DVD: May 29, 2007

Running Time: 112 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Paul Giamatti, Michelle Williams, Michael Pitt, Karl Anthony, P.J. Lalka, Marc Macaulay, Rusty Schwimmer, and Robert Wisdom

George Gattling (Giamatti) finds little fulfillment as an auto upholsterer, the patriarch of a broken family, and the occasional lover of a lonely psychology student (Williams). When stricken with a family tragedy, George becomes obsessed with taming a wild, red-tail hawk. At his weakest moment, he locks himself into a battle of wills with a fierce creature that would rather die than succumb. (Strand Releasing)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

TV Guide Ken Fox

Goldberger, who made his debut with the similarly gritty and deliberately unpolished "Trans," tries to pull the novel's concerns to the surface, but much of its subtlety is lost. Giamatti, however, delivers yet another superb performance, turning what might have been a freak show into an unexpectedly moving experience.

Read Full Review >
75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

A fragile little movie, occasionally ridiculous, but with M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady In The Water," Giamatti proved that he can make even the weirdest material believable.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Not an easy movie to watch, and it's far from perfect - but it does have an artsy integrity and a fascinatingly intense performance by Paul Giamatti.

Read Full Review >
50

Village Voice Nathan Lee

I won't pretend it makes for a happy night at the cinema, and it may require a leap of faith to succumb to Goldberger's spell. But I leapt, and found it enthralling up to the point where this legitimately weird movie capitulates to the most conventional catharsis. I'd rather watch Goldberger fail than a hundred others succeed.

Read Full Review >
50

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

For all the effort Giamatti gives in making George a convincing character, the movie itself, never quite gets off the ground. The feel is too deliberately peculiar, and Goldberger's detached style never gives us a reason to invest ourselves in anyone but George.

Read Full Review >
40

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Set in North Florida and based on a book by Harry Crews, The Hawk Is Dying is a dreary study of male angst groaning beneath the weight of its own symbolism.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Goldberger's stubbornly insular script - adapted from a novel by Harry Crews - might have fared better on stage, where the story would feel more contained than suffocating. But by the time you crawl across this finish line, you'll know just how those sluggish the birdsfeel.

Read Full Review >
30

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

Loaded with obtuse symbolism, the film is not only hard to understand, it isn't much fun trying to figure it out.

Read Full Review >
30

Variety David Rooney

Already gasping for breath in its opening scenes, picture takes two bleak, unyielding hours to finally expire.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tom T. gave it a10:
I thought this was a very beautiful and moving film. I loved the photography and all of the visual detalis. Paul Giamatti, Michelle Williams and Michael Pitt are all terrific in their roles, as is the supporting cast. I really felt I was in Florida with them, feeling the lead character's pain. The ending is beautiful.

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use