Director: Simon Curtis
Distributor: 20th Century FOX
Duration: 103 minutes
Goodbye Christopher Robin (DVD) – Movie Review
We all know Disney’s overly popular, slightly chubby and very joyful bear, Winnie the Pooh. But many, especially the younger among us, might not know where it all began. Not with Disney, that’s for sure, and he didn’t look the way he does now either. Winnie the Pooh was created by A. A. Milne, who got his inspiration from his own son, and the cuddly bear he took everywhere with him. That’s right, Winnie exists in real life, as do his friends Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore and the others. Isn’t that exciting? In Goodbye Christopher Robin, you’ll see exactly how it all began.
The story starts off in 1916, when Alan Alexander Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) is fighting in the battle of the Somme. He is one of the lucky ones to make it back home after the war, but he suffers from PTSD, something that wasn’t established at the time. Back in the day, he used to be a very popular playwright, but after the war, it gets more difficult for him to find inspiration. He and his wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) live in London at that time, where they have a very busy social life, which Daphne loves. Nonetheless, Alan decides he wants to retire to the countryside, so he can focus on his new project. Much to Daphne’s dislike, they move to East Sussex, with their son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston) and his nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald).
While for Alan, it seems to have been a good decision to come down to the countryside, Daphne is slowly going crazy of boredom and returns to London. When Olive leaves too, to look after her ill mother, Alan is suddenly left alone with the boy. At first he doesn’t really know what to do, but eventually father and son get to know each other better, and Alan happily plays along with Christopher and his stuffed animals. And slowly but surely, that’s how Winnie the Pooh was born. Quickly, the world comes to love him, but equally as quickly, Christopher Robin’s life is about to change for good.
While of course A. A. Milne was the creator of Winnie the Pooh, it’s actually his son Christopher Robin who takes the lead in this story. He’s the one who inspires his father, and the director, Simon Curtis, managed to capture this process of Pooh’s creation quite well. Oftentimes, a biographical story moves quite slowly at the beginning, but in this case, it actually moves at quite a good pace, without it feeling rushed. As Alan is gathering inspiration for his book, you can almost see the magic happen in the Hundred Acre Wood. The beautiful nature and watching his son play give him the inspiration he needs to create one of the most successful children’s books ever written.
The star of the show is definitely Will Tilston, the nine-year-old who plays Christopher Robin. He is quite adorable, and he actually acts very convincingly, certainly given the fact that he had no experience whatsoever. Domhnall Gleeson’s character Alan makes quite a transformation during the film, and he manages to capture it well. Also his interaction with Will Tilston is just so enjoyable to watch, they must have had a great deal of fun while filming, that’s for sure.
There are some extras on this DVD release, such as an audio commentary, a gallery and the trailer, but it’s mostly the promotional featurettes that are interesting specials. Here you will get little snippets about how the film wat made, about the characters, about the cast etc. Overall, these are really a fun addition to the film, and you get quite many of them too, so another bonus there.
Conclusion
Goodbye Christopher Robin is actually a story about the relationship between a father and his son. It may not have started off well, but they did grow toward each other, and a new world, the world of Winnie the Pooh and his friends, was born. While Christopher Robin wasn’t that grateful to his father, the world definitely is, as Pooh is still immensely popular to this day, be it in a somewhat different form than the original one. The story is nicely brought and interesting, the acting is decent and the extras have some fun content. What’s not to love?
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