Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)

It could have been sick-makingly sentimental but thanks to a couple of terrific performances from Domhnall Gleeson as the author A.A. Milne and a remarkable child actor named Will Tilston, making his debut as the boy who 'becomes' Christopher Robin, Simon Curtis' film "Goodbye, Christopher Robin" is, instead, moving, intelligent and very likable. In fact, this is one of the best films about childhood I've seen in a very long time.

It's simply the story of how Milne's relationship with his son not only inspired the Christopher Robin and Pooh stories but also helped him recover from the shell-shock brought on by his time spent fighting in the Great War, an experience that also turned him into a pacifist. It's also a great film about celebrity which, for a child, isn't necessarily a good thing. The success of the stories turned young Milne into a kind of superstar of his day with the line between reality and illusion becoming a rather tricky one to walk. I doubt if any royal baby ever received this kind of adulation. Excellent work, too, from Margot Robbie as the boy's somewhat distant mother and from Kelly Macdonald as his beloved nanny. A real treat.

Fmovies: I was brought up on Winnie the Pooh and got almost as much enjoyment from these stories and poems when reading them to our children as I got from my parents efforts for me. I also recall interviews and stories with Christopher Robin Milne, the Devon bookshop proprietor who never got over the publicity and notoriety of having one of the most public early childhoods in recent history.

I was expecting a gentle tale of how it all came about, with some bucolic English countryside scenes of woods and rivers. It does provide an explanation of how it all came about; there are loving scenes of English countryside where it's nearly always summery late afternoon, but it does so much more. It is so much more nuanced and tells the stories from most of the main characters' differing and conflicting backgrounds and perceptions. In so doing, the depth and subtlety far exceed what many might have expected from the film's initial premise. Just how truthful it is to real life I don't know, but frankly the film didn't make me want to find out. I was more than satisfied with what was presented.

Both Will Tilston as Christopher Robin aged 8 and Alex Lawther by the time he's 18 are excellent in their roles. The young CR simply fizzes with the enthusiasm and ups and downs of young childhood. Alex Lawther gives a measured and insightful performance, and his discussions with his father underline the complexity of the tale. I felt all the other main characters delivered well: Domhnall Gleeson is a fine Alan Milne, Margot Robbie as wife Daphne is convincing in her self centred aloofness, and Kelly Macdonald is just wonderful as the Milne family nanny.

It's hard to know how anyone unfamiliar with the AA Milne children's books would find this film, as it probably assumes a fair bit of this background knowledge. But I found it surprisingly engaging, with a depth and subtlety I wasn't expecting.

But I doubt it is particularly suitable for younger children, despite the PG (Parental Guidance) rating here in Australia.

While not entirely perfect, this film is one that I will definitely watch again.

It had strange resonances for me personally, as my grandmother was a famous and celebrated author, who used me as inspiration for several of her children's books, and also as a subject for one of her academic books for adults.

During my early childhood, I spent many happy days playing imaginative games with my grandmother - always followed around by a photographer - and those games became the basis for her stories, with the photographs of me used to illustrate them. At the time I was quite happy about this, as it made me feel special, but I am now very well aware that I was being exploited.

Like Christopher Robin, I was never asked permission to be in her books, nor was I ever paid (although I inherited a modest amount of money when she died, so I suppose that could be considered payment of sorts).

Unlike Christopher Robin, I never resented the books I was in, and I never felt that my childhood memories had been stolen or commercialised. But my situation was never as drastic as his, and my grandmother's celebrity didn't even come close to that of A.A. Milne. However, there are enough parallels to have given me a few shivers while watching this movie.

Others have commented on its excellence, so I won't belabour that point, except to say that I agree. As a film it is beautifully crafted and (for me anyway) endlessly re-watchable.

I disagree with the negative comments about the stilted acting. If anything I felt they needed to be more stilted to be properly true to the period. I do agree that Margo Robbie's accent was uneven, but performance-wise I felt she did very well in what was perhaps the hardest role to perform convincingly.

As others have mentioned, the best performances came from the two boys playing Christopher Robin, although I also particularly liked Stephen Campbell Moore's understated warmth, and - for the first time in her career- I actually found myself liking Kelly Macdonald, an actress who has irritated me in every other film in which I've seen her. Here she exudes warmth and tenderness, and in a well-pitched and technically difficult performance manages to display undercurrents of disapproval and sympathy to the audience without over-egging the pudding.

The cinematography by Ben Smithard also bears special mention, bringing to the screen a subtle yet richly evocative atmosphere of nostalgia and childhood innocence without sacrificing realism or becoming overly stylised.

In fact, one of this film's many technical merits is the fine balance it achieves between all its various flavours and ingredients; each one subtle and understated, yet combining to create a rich and satisfying whole.

As an overall viewing experience it has much to recommend it, and very little about which to complain.

Goodbye Christopher Robin fmovies. A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories captivated me as a child and they are still wonderful stories through young adult eyes. The stories epitomise childhood innocence, the atmosphere is enough to enchant everybody regardless of gender and age and the characters are some of the most charming in children's literature (Disney's treatment of them as some of their most famous ever creations is every bit as special).

Hearing that there was a biographical drama based on the man, his life and his family, the desire to see 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' was overwhelming. Was not disappointed at all after seeing it today, it was a lovely biographical drama even with Milne's life not being what one would expect reading the stories or being familiar with the timeless characters, his dark and troubled personal life being the anti-thesis of the innocent and charming world created in his Winnie the Pooh stories. That was actually what was so fascinating about 'Goodbye Christopher Robin'.

'Goodbye Christopher Robin' in biographical terms fascinates and illuminates. But the film fares even better judging it as a film on its own merits, on this front it is a lovely very good film that is neither the potentially cutesy cookie-cutter film one might think it would be reading the title or the overly dark and joyless one that one would fear upon looking up what the film is about. It's more layered than either.

The film looks great for starters. The beautiful cinematography, with its vibrant hues, really brings the film to life in a way that reminds one of how a story book would. The settings and costumes are both sumptuous and vivid, making the viewer feel like they've been transported in time to that period and being part of it. Carter Burwell's string-heavy score is luscious and stirring in its elegance. Both combined creates a really nostalgic quality that could have been at odds at the dark portrayal of Milne's and his family's personal life but it's an effective contrast.

When it comes to the writing, 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' is very intelligently and thoughtfully written and, considering that it has a subject matter where it is so easy to go heavy-handed and be too much of one tone, has evidence of sensitivity and nuance with touches of bitter irony in how such a happy childhood depicted in the stories was very much a miserable one in real life. The nods and references to Milne's work are clever and affectionate, enough to make one's eyes well up with aching nostalgia. The story is cohesive and never feels like it's jumping around too much or lacking momentum, it also has a lot of heart and affecting poignancy in how Christopher tries to get his father to loosen up and the interaction with his nanny (along with Christopher the warmest and most sympathetic character in 'Goodbye Christopher Robin').

Direction lets the story to breathe but doesn't fail in giving it momentum. The performances are near-uniformly strong. The central character in fact is Christopher Robin himself, and while Alex Lawther does very well with teenage Christopher the star here is Will Tilston, who gives a touching and far more layered performance than one would think he was capable of. Instead of being overly-cute, he evokes tears of both playful joy and vulnerable sadness and the film particularly comes alive with the father/son relationship.

As Milne, Domhnall Gleeson is excellent, whether one feels empathy for him is another sto

Not having any serious connection with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and the rest of the children's story, Winnie the Pooh, I am perhaps even more ready than its devotees to admire Goodbye Christopher Robin. It's a biopic of great sensitivity that mixes nostalgia for the most popular children's book ever with the harshness of two world wars and the practice of parents leaving their children with nannies in the first quarter of the 20th century.

I now wish I had a stronger relationship with those little critters and that lovable boy, for I could have used the distraction from the aftermath of WWII just as Pooh was able to do for the world after the war to end all wars. Author A.A. Milne (a stoic and yet lovable Domhnall Gleeson) was traumatized by his service in the war, and moved slowly to erase that PTSD while creating Pooh. The film spends too much time on his trauma, but it does help fill out Milne's character.

Yet, this is the story of Billy Moon (a remarkably-dimpled, serene Will Tilston), as Christopher Robin is called in real life, who supplies his dad with inspirations for the book. The film centers on remote dad's growing love for the boy and the book while remote mom goes off to London to do who knows what. The film carefully shows how children might be lucky to have a nanny like Neu (Kelly Macdonald) to give them love and some creative inspiration along the way.

Goodbye Christopher Robin is a successful biopic because it doesn't spare the story of anti-helicopter parents who endanger the mental health of their children with their absences. As fame overtakes the Milne family, the film still relays the sense of wonderment Billy had as a child immersed in love of his forest, animals, and imagination.

The biopic may be counter to what we expected of a world-renowned author of a book for children. That he had difficulty initially interacting with his own child is unusual, but the film is successful showing how he warms up and creates a masterpiece as well.

Though not always a feel good movie, Goodbye Christopher Robin makes you wish he'd never go away. It looks like he never will.

Goodbye Christopher Robin certainly tugged at heartstrings, unfolding a somewhat cold narrative, sprinkled with its share of warm joyous moments of family banter and the creation of something we have all adored for the entirety of our lives. Although only rated PG, it was thematically mature in speaking to the audience as much as the characters spoke to themselves. Its power grew strongest when it beckoned the nostalgia of my childhood, telling a story as astonishingly real as I imagined Winnie the Pooh himself to be—whether it was from the books I read to the show I watched (plus the recent animated film), or my late father playing the Kenny Loggins song on guitar to my delight.

The plot may have moved somewhat slowly, but the flow of the film certainly did not. The pace of the scenes moved very fast, keeping strong engagement throughout. I'll say that it helped I am very familiar with the content material (as we all are), which kind of made it funny when you see the "origin" of a toy animal's name comes from, almost feeling contrived because we already know it... but even if this was a fictional tale with an unfamiliar background you couldn't help but be emotionally riveted. It was well acted all the way around, and we have a breakout performance by the adorable young Will Tilston.

As I said before, this film is not completely sunshine and rainbows. It does play on the idea of "in the darkness comes the light," to shine optimism on our main characters who have dealt with internal conflicts and the pains of the world wars, and to also let viewers leave not too distressed over what could have easily been told as a tale of tragedy. I think most of the right buttons were pressed for myself as I watched it, but I can't say that this is totally a children's movie where they will be riveted with joy and delight (not to mention I don't know how much influence Pooh has on children today compared to that of, say, Dora). Director Simon Curtis did this cool thing when Milne's books were being created that sometimes showed moments between young Christopher Robin and his stuffed bear literally jump off the page. Again, anything that could hearken back to my days 25 years ago were great brownie points for me.

There were only three things I did not much care for about this film. The first is the color timing. Skin tones were muddled in a red-pink hue as the entire palette had desaturated any oranges, and the only green that would appear was on the grass in the woods. Even Margot Robbie's irises lost their vivacity with every closeup of her, occurred was quite often (EDIT: after watching the trailer I see my projector may have been uncalibrated, though it still wasn't my favorite timing). The second was the way PTSD was portrayed, although this is only speaking second-hand. The certain triggers, actions, and overall attachment to the story did not really latch onto the same track as the rest of the film, even if it was authentic. Finally, the timeline jumps would be obtrusive when we have to reestablish where we are at and where we are headed. I want to say it only happened twice, but both times threw me out for a good bit.

There are enough quips in this film to provide moments of laughter, and long-drawn sequences where I notice that I was smiling the entire time. However you may be evoked throughout, by the time the credits roll the only time you couldn't hear others' waterworks was when they were overshadowed by your own. Fantastic film, and if