Goodbye Christopher Robin (7/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 107 minutes.

PG

Based on the relationship between “Winnie the Pooh” author AA Milne and his son, Christopher Robin, from whom sprang most of Milne’s stories, this is a tear-jerking biopic with a smashing performance by Will Tilston, who plays Christopher. It shows how his parents, AA Milne (Domhnall Gleason) and Daphne (Margot Robbie), exploited their son and robbed him of his childhood. The only negative about it is that it is far too long. It took me 45 minutes to really get into the story as the first half of the film drags terribly.

Directed by Simon Curtis from a script written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Simon Vaughan, Milne fled his London life to abide in the  English countryside. There he unexpectedly found a treasure trove of stories about his apparently precocious but sensitive son and, voila! suddenly he was the world famous writer of children’s books.

This happened serendipitously because the imaginary stories he created for his son in East Sussex he turned into stories that were about his son and his huge supply of stuffed animals, one of which was the teddy bear that they both called Winnie-the-Pooh.

While that is the basis of the film, what it’s really about is the effect all this had on Christopher Robin and, tangentially, Milne and Daphne and their relationship. It’s an interesting, heart-rending tale. The story is enhanced by the outstanding production design in recreating the English countryside of the 1920s and fine performances by all three, but especially Tilston, who really should be up for Oscar® consideration as Best Supporting Actor.