The Hawk Is Dying

As George, a Floridian obsessed with training hawks, Giamatti takes his trademark miserable-loser routine into the country of madness. George lives with his obese glossy-mag–reading sister (Schwimmer) and her autistic 20-year-old son (Pitt). When tragedy strikes on the same day George catches a particularly striking red-tailed hawk, George channels all of his grief into making the bird obey his will. Much theatrical gnashing of teeth follows, with supporting overacting provided by Williams as an undergrad psych student who rather implausibly bonds with George. The hawk symbolism is pushed pretty hard, and Giamatti gets to deliver a big dumb monologue explaining why the birds figure prominently in his personal mythology. It’s all artfully gloomy and rather annoying.