[yasr_overall_rating]
A behind-the-scenes look at the life of author A.A. Milne and the creation of the Winnie the Pooh stories inspired by his son C.R. Milne.
When I first went into the movie I carried very little expectation. The trailer (like all great promotional material) gave me everything I needed to know about the movie: Milne writes Winnie the Pooh based off of his son’s adventures, cashes in, his son becomes famous, everyone struggles, there’s a world war or two. I wasn’t wrong. I assumed I’d be stronger than your average audience member to avoid the emotional swings in this (kind of) predictable movie. It turns out: no person is above the charms of Winnie the Pooh’s origin story, especially one this charmingly told.
It’s a tear-jerker sure, but only because it manages that light tenderness needed to frame the darkness within, but also because we’re talking about Winnie the freakin’ Pooh. “Goodbye Christopher Robin” almost singularly lives and dies by its titular protagonist. Even though the story follows A.A. Milne (played by a confusing melancholic Domhnall Gleeson) it lives and dies by Will Tilston’s hero. In fact, Tilston’s the most alive out of all of them. I think Robbie and Gleeson both traded on typical British stoicism to help guide their performances. So, it helps that Tilston’s our emotional anchor. We laugh when he laughs, chuckle at his childlike wonder and awe, and cry when he cries.
This movie was filmed with an absolute love for the outdoors and animals. Whether it’s the woods surrounding Sussex or the penguins at the zoo, you’re uplifted. Long meandering wide shots of the English countryside linger throughout. We’re treated to some pivotal editing sequences in the form of PTSD flashbacks and a child’s imagination coming to life.
An odd rumination about fathers and sons, war, PTSD, the artistic process, and healing, “Goodbye Christopher Robin” trades on what we often discredit as childish shoutouts. I have not seen an audience that invested in a movie in quite some time. This movie may trade in sappy emotional appeal, but the one thing it does best is remind us of how important Winnie the Pooh stories are to each and every one of us (a point the movie makes blatantly clear by the end.) It’s heart-warming and thoughtful, like a honeypot straight out of Pooh’s hearth.
In theaters Friday, October 20th
