“That was quite good.”

From Goodbye Christopher Robin.

At the end of WWI, the Milne family is struggling on every level.  Alan (Domhnall Gleeson) is struggling with the horrors he saw during the war, his wife, Daphne (Margot Robbie), is trying to balance her life after the war with her life before, and their son, “Billy” Christopher Robin (Will Tilston), is desperately trying to connect with his parents.  Unable to adjust back into life in London and struggling even more to return to his job as a writer, Alan moves his family to the Sussex countryside where he still struggles to write, but finds more peace in the quiet.  Billy is primarily raised by his nanny, Olive (Kelly Macdonald) until a family emergency takes her away for several weeks, leaving Alan to take care of Billy.  The bond between father and son quickly grows as Alan begins to play, forget, and imagine with his son.  While playing together, their imaginative adventures also inspire Alan to publish the stories they create with Christopher Robin and a band of stuffed animals led by the silly bear, Pooh.  As the book build a major following, it launches Alan back into a successful writing career, but it also turns Billy into an icon for fans.  The stress that fame places on the Milne family is evident as the young boy quickly becomes a marketing tool for his father’s book.  Things quickly go from good to bad as the pressure rises and Alan will have to find a way to connect again with his son before their relationship is lost forever.

It is fascinating to watch the story develop, especially for viewers familiar with the Winnie the Pooh stories, characters, and movies.  The development of the story does bring a slightly sad tone to the Winnie the Pooh franchise, but on one level it feels right as it brings more humanity to the author and main character of the beloved stories.  Goodbye Christopher Robin is a touching look back at one of history’s most beloved childhoods and the father who brought it all about.

| Rated: PG | Running Time: 107 minutes |Genre: biography/drama |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 2 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 2 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|