November
29
Tags
Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)
Box-office pressure compels filmmakers to make one film appeal to multiple markets. If you can plausibly mix a war story, a domestic drama and a coming-of-age tale into a bio-pic that appeals to all age groups you are on a winner. Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) is certainly a winner.
All of these genre strands reveal a different aspect of the same story: that the author of the world’s most recognised children’s storybook character Winnie the Pooh had exploited his son to achieve literary fame. Alan Alexander Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) returned deeply traumatised after the ‘war to end all wars’, hoping to resume his fashionable career as a London playwright. His pretentious wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) wanted a daughter and never bonded with their son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston). They retreat to the countryside but Daphne quickly tires of rural life, leaving her husband and son for the London social scene. When his beloved nanny Olive (Kelly McDonald) must spend time with her sick mother, Christopher finds a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get to know his father. It is during this short period that the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ legend was born.
The film has a narrative structure that allows the story to move between genre strands and across several decades. The effect of these shifts is to tell the story from Christopher’s point of view both as a child and later as a young man after World War II. Through his childhood recollections, the adult Christopher shares his loneliness and deep resentment over the endless interviews and public adoration for the ‘boy with the bear from the 100 Acre Wood’. The story reveals that instead of little Christopher Robin being the luckiest boy in the world he was the saddest.
This is a beautifully told story which unfolds gently to leave the Pooh mythology as undisturbed as possible. The filming is lusciously saturated with many scenes having a painterly picture-book quality evocative of childhood nostalgia. Casting is superb, with the impossibly adorable and mega-dimpled Will Tilston stealing every scene in which he appears. Domhnall Gleeson is excellent as the war-damaged author who turned to writing fantasy to ease the trauma, and Margot Robbie is perfect as the emotionally vacuous parent for whom mothering was an embarrassing inconvenience. The dialogue-rich script is peppered with whimsy, intelligence, and the starchy middle-class manners of Britain in the war years.
With top-shelf production values it is hard to fault this film, except of course if you are a historian. Several have questioned the facts upon which the story is based and they always will. Or perhaps you are a Milne fan hoping to hear his prose and feel cheated by the fleeting references to the characters and settings of his work. However, judged on its cinematic merits, the delightful Goodbye Christopher Robin is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining films of the year.
Director: Simon Curtis
Stars: Will Tilston, Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly McDonald
CineMuseFilms 
Another fantastic review – after hearing your thoughts, I’m definitely going to see the film!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a lovely comment; I hope you enjoy this delightful film.
LikeLike
I had the chance to see this one last night, but opted instead for The Novitiate, which was far from a bad choice. But now I sort of wish I’d seen this one because I’m afraid it will be favorite theater before I get a chance to see it. Thank heavens for Netflix. All I need is patience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What did you think of The Novitiate?
LikeLike
It is a slow film, unfolding small bits at a time. It is not as complicated as recent films on a similar topic, like Doubt. But it does a good job of explaining why people sequester themselves in a religious order. It also explores abuse of power – in a different context than what we’re seeing in the media now – and it examines what Vatican II meant to the devout, the devout who feared that any change in religious interpretation was an accusation against the validity of their faith.
Some of the acting was riveting, notably Julianne Nicholson, Margaret Qualley, and Lian Liberato.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I have said before rangewriter, you should be writing more film reviews.
LikeLike
I’m a fraud. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
A convincing one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was never all that taken with it, Gleeson and Robbie felt wooden and unconvincing and then the film fell into portraying her as this villain determined to corrupt the relationship between father and son.
It was only saved by the appearance of Alex Lawther in the last ten minutes as the grown Christopher who was able to convey all the themes and emotion of the film better in his few scenes than his co-stars did throughout the entire running time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting comment about the “wooden” performances. I also read them as wooden but that felt entirely appropriate for their class and the times. I agree that the adult Christopher was excellent but I’m a sucker for the boy’s performance. Thanks for commenting.
LikeLike
I shared your review with some friends who then saw the film and loved it. “A beautiful film” one of the ladies texted me. I wasn’t available when they went, and its been rolled out of our area now. I’m hoping to see it tomorrow in the Southern Highlands – an hour’s drive away 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It will be worth the drive for this delicious film.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy to report that I made the trip and loved the film. I didn’t find the performances wooden. Rather they came across to me as appropriate for the time and class. And as you commented, how can we not love the young CR?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked it and thanks for your comment. I must take more care when using a word like “wooden”. It too easy reads as a criticism implying “unintentionally wooden”. Whereas in this film, the acting could be described as appropriately wooden as one might expect of upper middle class British society of the times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It WAS well worth the drive. A beautiful film and skilfully handled. I didn’t find the performances wooden. In my view they were appropriate to the time and class (or at least our modern day perceptions of them). The film also left me curious about Ernest (E H Shepard) whose illustrations contributed enormously to the success of the books. I thought he played a very good support role.
LikeLike
Pingback: Favourites 2017 | CineMuseFilms