KEITH on Reels

Directed by Simon Curtis who is best known for 2011’s My Week with Marilyn, Goodbye Christopher Robin is a fascinating glimpse into the personal life of the creator of Winnie the Pooh and what inspired him to create such an iconic children’s character. Played by Domhnall Gleeson, A. A. Milne is a talented and well-respected writer who struggles with his next project after serving as a soldier during World War I and still suffering from post-traumatic stress. He decides it would be good for his mental health to move out of London and live in East Sussex in the English countryside with his beautiful wife Daphne, played by Margot Robbie, and his young son Christopher Robin who they nickname Billy Moon. Clearly experiencing horrific flashbacks and ridden with guilt and depression, he is largely an absent father and has a sometimes difficult married life. As a result, Christopher Robin is primarily raised by his loving nanny Olive, played by Kelly Macdonald best known for her role in HBO’s TV series Boardwalk Empire. Eventually, Milne becomes inspired during a long weekend alone with his son when he comes up with fantastical stories about Christopher Robin’s toys, particularly his teddy bear, while they play in the nearby woods. With the help of a friend and illustrator, he comes up with the character Winnie the Pooh, named after a bear from Winnipeg in the London Zoo and a swan named by his son as Pooh, and other characters that would be later first published as a children’s book in 1926 and a second book released in 1928. After such a catastrophic war, Winnie the Pooh becomes an inspirational distraction for the British public and helps heal the emotional wounds suffered. The international success of the character Winnie the Pooh and his fictional friend Christopher Robin does renew his literary career but at the expense of his family. His son Christopher Robin, who is the basis for the boy in the stories, essentially becomes a marketing tool and becomes too busy to experience a normal childhood because of his own fame. Milne realizes the mistakes he has made in exposing his son to such publicity at such a young age when the real Christopher Robin grows up and enlists in the military at the outbreak of World War II. Overall, I found it to be a well acted film that does a good job of providing insight into the creation of one of the most beloved children characters and its positive and negative effects on the author and his family. However, the movie at times felt conflicted about whether it should be a sentimental story about childhood or a dramatic story about the ills of war and celebrity.