Film Review - Goodbye Christopher Robin (PG)

I'd really like it if you wrote a book for me.

You'd expect a film dealing with the creation of Winnie-the-Pooh to be beautiful. Likewise you'd imagine it to be whimsical and touching. What you might not be quite so prepared for is how much anguish it might contain. And there's anguish-a-plenty here - just look at Domhnall Gleeson's face in the poster. Yes this story has its sweetness, but it's tempered with a good dose of bitter, and you'll know that from the opening moments.

Goodbye Christopher Robin, for all its ritzy London and bucolic Sussex settings, is shadowed by war - the shadows most apparent on the faces of survivors such as writer A A Milne (Gleeson). Known for his comic plays, Milne is reeling too much from his experiences in the Great War to rediscover his writing gift. He's failing too as a husband and as a father to his young son Christopher Robin ('Billy' as he's more often known), depending on the services of a loyal nanny rather than devoting his own time to the boy. Only when circumstances leave father and son fending for themselves do the pair discover common ground - involving stories about Billy's collection of soft animal toys, notably a bear.

This is a movie of numerous acts, where apparent resolutions morph into something different and unexpected for those (like me) who knew nothing of the Milne/Christopher Robin real-life story. The film feels noticeably long as a result, although the final scenes do tie things everything together in a dramatically satisfying way. These characters' emotions run deep and their dynamics are complex (a bit like real life then). The sheer joy of the Pooh stories only serves as a counterpoint to the dark struggles that exist in the real world, whether between nations or family members.

Serious kudos goes to Gleeson, 2017's Actor Who Is Everywhere (American Made, Mother!, Star Wars: The Last Jedi). Son of the great Brendan and fine performer in his own right, he excels here as the distant, war-tormented playwright, who finds healing through the innocence of writing children's fiction and through actively being a dad. The sequences where he and Billy (terrific newcomer Will Tilston) improvise Pooh stories while tumbling through the woods are as uplifting as they are aesthetically gorgeous. If only everything in the story were this uplifting...

Margot Robbie is also strong as Daphne Milne, a society woman - brittle beneath her gregarious exterior, whose maternal love comes in irregular bursts rather than a steady flow. And Kelly Macdonald is at her earnest best as Nanny, young Billy's beloved 'Nou' and chief source of stability throughout his childhood. 

Most notable however is the tension between the look movie's look (cinematographer Ben Smithard captures rural England at its most gorgeous) and its feel. Christopher Robin/Billy's story has charm and lots of it, but it also has a troubling undercurrent. Humans are complex and problems can beget other problems. Even when Hundred Acre Wood is dappled with sunlight and the weather's good for a game of Pooh Sticks.

Gut Reaction: Charmed and frustrated turn-about by the characters' behaviour. Very touched by the ending.

Ed's Verdict: Stunning to look at and acted to perfection by all concerned, this is as moving as you'd expect, but significantly darker.