Movie Reaction: Goodbye Christopher Robin

Formula: (Finding Neverland + Saving Mr. Banks) / Bridge to Terabithia

There sure are a lot of movies about authors. Maybe not a lot of great ones, but there are a lot. Sometimes they're true stories (Finding Neverland, Saving Mr. Banks, Rebel in the Rye, Genius). Sometimes they aren't (Wonder Boys, Finding Forrester, Misery). Often the fictional ones use that as an excuse to go meta about the writing process (Alex & Emma, Paper Man, Adaptation). And it makes sense. What do screenplay writers know better about than writing? After you watch enough of these movies though, particularly the true ones, you realize that there's not all that much to writing a story (in a cinematic sense). I mean, it's just a person sitting down and writing something. I guess you could get creative when you show the person getting an idea. That's about it though. In other words, Goodbye Christopher Robin is an uphill climb as an idea.

This film tells the story of how A.A. Milne came up with the idea for Winne the Pooh. It begins with Milne returning from WWI with obvious PTSD (although they didn't do much for it back then). He moves his family to the country, where he hopes to find some peace. He and his wife are mostly absentee parents to their son Christopher [Robin], who is primarily being raised by a nanny. Through chance, Milne finds himself alone with his son for a couple weeks. He bonds with Christopher over that time, which inspires him to write Winnie the Pooh, based on Christopher, his stuffed animals, and the woods outside their house. The success of the book turns Christopher [Robin] into more of a celebrity than anyone could've dreamed, which becomes the central conflict of the movie. From what I can tell, this all seems pretty true to life except with some things edited to better fit a screenplay, of course. It's a pretty low stakes movie, and a lot of it is up to the actors to sell.

Thankfully, the cast is exactly why I saw the movie. Domhnall Gleeson is putting together one of those filmographies that makes me wonder if he's personally trying to appeal to my tastes. He plays A.A. Milne. Margot Robbie plays Milne's wife, Daphne, who does love Milne deeply, but loves living a high society lifestyle. I'll go ahead and say now that Gleeson and Robbie are about a decade too young for the roles. I just had to get over that. The Milne's are very British and of their time. They dole out affection in very measured amounts. They are very proper and obey the rules of proper society. Gleeson has a lot more screen time, so he's able to add a few more shades to his character. Robbie has a more thankless role. She gets out of the movie without looking too awful, but there just isn't the time to do much with her character.  Alex Lawther does a good job playing the young Christopher Robin Milne. His performance is not nuanced or anything, but you feel for the kid, and that's all that matters. I must also mention that the always wonderful Kelly MacDonald plays Christopher's nanny. Again, there's nothing inherently special about the role, but MacDonald gets the most out of it.

Overall, this is a low impact drama that tries to do a little too much, between the story of Milne coping with his PSTD, his aversion to war, the development and writing of Winnie the Pooh, and the fallout - short term and long term - of that success for Christopher. The story especially rushes toward the end. I got plenty of enjoyment though just out of seeing the development of the Winnie the Pooh story though. You know. He gets a kangaroo stuffed animal and I'm like "It's Roo!". Those little things, predictable as they may be, go a long way. There's an inherent irony to the film. It's a movie about how this fame ruined Christopher's life, but it relies on that same curiosity about his life to sell the movie. Seeing it is reinforcing the conflict. Oh well. Lesson learned, I guess. There's nothing about this movie that I really disliked, although there also isn't anything about it remarkable enough to make me love it either. It's worth watching but not priority viewing.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend