Goodbye Christopher Robin

Goodbye Christopher Robin is a 2017 British biographical drama film about the lives of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A. A. Milne and his family, especially his son Christopher Robin. It was directed by Simon Curtis and written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Simon Vaughan, and stars Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, and Kelly Macdonald. The film premiered in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2017. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $7.2 million at the box office.
Plot
During World War II in 1941, Alan Alexander Milne – nicknamed "Blue" by his friends and family – and his wife Daphne receive a distressing telegram at their home. The story begins in 1916 during World War I with Blue fighting in the Battle of the Somme. Blue resumes his life with Daphne in England while suffering shell shock with occasional flashbacks to his battle experiences, and has a child with Daphne. Daphne appears traumatised by the birth as the midwife says "she didn't understand the mechanics" of giving birth. She was also hoping for a girl and is disappointed to instead have a son. They name the baby Christopher Robin Milne, but generally call him "Billy Moon". They hire a nanny, Olive Rand, whom Billy calls "Nou". At Olive's job interview, Daphne says how wonderful it is that whilst the war killed so many men, it means there are a great number of women such as Olive who will never marry and can therefore be of service to others.
Blue is having difficulty resuming his writing – he wants to draft a compelling treatise against war – and relocates the family to a house in the country with wooded acreage. Daphne resents the move and returns to London for an extended period. During that time, Olive goes to care for her dying mother and the cook takes some time off, leaving Blue and Billy to fend for themselves. Reluctantly at first, Blue takes Billy along on walks in the woods and begins making up stories about the boy's adventures with the plush toy animals the parents have bought for him.
Blue invites his illustrator friend Ernest to join them at the house, and together they begin to develop the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Daphne returns to the house after Blue sends her a poem, "Vespers", that she has had published for him in Vanity Fair. Olive returns following her mother's death. After the Winnie-the-Pooh books become a success, Daphne manages their new-found celebrity and readily accepts extra opportunities to generate publicity and income, for example, a line of Winnie the Pooh bears, or an opportunity to have tea with 'Christopher Robin'. As Christopher Robin, Billy makes frequent public appearances, which he finds confusing and frustrating.
When Billy learns that Olive has a beau, Alfred Brockwell, he tells his parents, after which Daphne feels betrayed and confronts Olive nastily. Olive becomes angry with Blue and Daphne, resigns, and admonishes them for what they have been putting Billy through. Blue resolves to stop writing about the boy and his imaginary friends. Olive leaves and Billy's mother tells him not to cry.
Blue ends Billy's publicity activities and enrolls him at a boarding school. However, "Christopher Robin" is bullied at the school and emerges bitter toward his father. When World War II breaks out, Billy is initially declared medically unfit for service, but he demands that his well-connected father – despite being horrified by war and the prospect of his son experiencing what he did – convince the army to accept him regardless. Billy leaves for service, turning his back on his father and disowning the books and the money from them. He gives Blue the cricket ball from the one match they played together where they 'connected'. Blue tries to stop him going at the last moment but it is too late.
The telegram from the opening scene is revisited: Billy has been reported missing and is presumed dead – news Blue passes to Olive, who is distraught. Billy's parents are both devastated by the news; Daphne blames Blue for having made it possible to send Billy off to the war. Relations between them are once again strained. However, Billy has survived and arrives at the country house without warning, leading to awkward but tearful reunions with his parents and Olive. Blue and Billy reconcile as Billy tells his father how one of Billy's fellow soldiers, in the desert under enemy fire, sang one of the 'Hums of Pooh' which made him realise that his father's storybook was a gift to the world which enabled British soldiers to remember the simple happy things about home. Father and son walk together through the woods, Billy being shown as both a young child and young man.
Cast
Domhnall Gleeson as Alan Alexander "A. A." Milne/Blue
Margot Robbie as Daphne Milne (née Dorothy "Daphne" de Sélincourt), A. A. Milne's wife
Kelly Macdonald as Olive Rand/Nou, Christopher Robin's nanny
Dexter and Sonny Hyman as 3-year-old Christopher Robin Milne
Will Tilston as 8-year-old Christopher Robin Milne/Billy Moon
Alex Lawther as 18-year-old Christopher Robin Milne
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Mary Brown
Vicki Pepperdine as Betty
Stephen Campbell Moore as Ernest H. Shepard
Richard McCabe as Rupert
Geraldine Somerville as Lady O
Nico Mirallegro as Cooper
Shaun Dingwall as Alfred Brockwell
Simon Williams as the zoo director
Matilda Curtis as Sister McGovern
Richard Clifford as the toy-shop manager
Richard Dixon as MC at pageant
Tommy Rodger as Douglas Minor
Robert Portal as the headmaster
Mark Tandy as the portrait photographer
Jim Cartwright as the military medic
Mossie Smith as Sharon the midwife
Rolan Bell as an American cop
Production
Development on the project first began in 2010, with Steve Christian and Nuala Quinn-Barton, and subsequently Damian Jones, as producers. Simon Vaughan wrote the screenplay.
In April 2016, Domhnall Gleeson entered discussions to star as A. A. Milne. He and Margot Robbie were confirmed to star in June 2016, with her as Milne's wife Daphne. Kelly Macdonald joined the film as Olive, Christopher Robin's nanny, later in the month.
Filming began in September 2016.
Release
The film was released in the UK on 29 September 2017, and in the US on 13 October 2017.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 181 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Goodbye Christopher Robin struggles to balance wartime tension and childlike wonder, but offers valuable insight into the darkness shadowing the creation of a classic children's tale." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
The Economist gave the film a mixed review, writing that "As in so many middlebrow period dramas, the vintage cars are too shiny, the clothes too smart, the upper-class accents too strained and the dialogue too contrived. However dark the plot becomes, the sun keeps shining brightly through the trees. You are never allowed to forget that you are watching a traditional piece of tourist-friendly British heritage cinema." The review praised it, however, stating that, "There aren't many films that demonstrate how a phenomenal professional success can also be the most catastrophic personal failure; there certainly aren't many that revolve around a collection of cuddly toys."
Accolades
See also
A Bear Named Winnie – a 2004 made-for-television drama film about the real-life bear Winnipeg, with Vaughan also acting as a writer and producer.
Christopher Robin – a 2018 fictional film made by the Walt Disney Company about the character named after Christopher Robin Milne.
References
External links
2017 drama films
2017 films
2017 biographical drama films
Films set in 1916
Films set in 1941
British biographical drama films
Biographical films about writers
Films directed by Simon Curtis
Films scored by Carter Burwell
Films set in England
Films set in London
Films set in Oxfordshire
Films set in the United States
Films shot in England
Films shot in London
Films shot in Oxfordshire
Films shot in the United States
Fox Searchlight Pictures films
Winnie-the-Pooh
2010s English-language films
2010s British films
Cultural depictions of Christopher Robin Milne