GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
Director: Simon Curtis
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, Will Tilston
Rating: (PG)
★★★ (out of five)
As it is, director Curtis presents us with a pleasantly nostalgic and pastoral Britain, where playwright and novelist A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) finds himself settled with wife Daphne (Margot Robbie), son Christopher Robin (newcomer Will Tilston), and live-in nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), after returning from the trenches of the Somme with crippling post-traumatic stress disorder, and a severe case of writer’s block.
Having abandoned work on an anti-war treatise, he struggles to find inspiration until his son’s collection of soft toys provides it for him, and the characters of Winnie-the-Pooh et al., and of course Christopher Robin himself, are born. The subsequent volumes of poems and short stories become children’s literary sensations, both in the UK and abroad, making instant celebrities of Milne and his son.
The opportunity for a more in-depth look at the destructive nature of the creative process, and the detrimental cost of fame for young children, is largely fumbled, making for a somewhat inconsistent tone throughout. The big emotional moments don’t really click, but with strong performances, especially from young Tilston, and a fine picture postcard evocation of 1920s rural England, it trundles along enjoyably enough to the finish.
- Jeremy Quinn
