Directorial debut number two from an award-winning actress this week comes from Kate Winslet, and it’s an unashamedly family affair, both in terms of the story and those involved in bringing it to the screen. Winslet directs and produces Goodbye June, and the script is by her son, Joe Anders (Bonus Track).
The story of a fractured family coping with a last goodbye, it starts with the June of the title (Helen Mirren) collapsing at home and receiving a less-than-positive prognosis in the hospital. Her four children – three daughters and a younger son – are brought back together, along with their father Bernie (Timothy Spall), as they try to come to grips with grief and the unthinkable prospect of their mother’s demise. But, with two of them – Julia (Winslet) and Molly (Andrea Riseborough) – constantly at loggerheads, Helen (Toni Collette) following an alternative lifestyle, Connor (Johnny Flynn) suffering from anxiety, and Bernie refusing point-blank to face reality, there’s only one person who can make the necessary decisions. And that’s June herself.
Talking about the impending death of a loved one is never easy, and for a family with so many emotional chasms, it’s doubly difficult. Combining this with a strikingly frank view of old age in the opening scenes brings an early promise of an honest picture of later life and complicated family dynamics. It’s a sad fact of life that bereavement and the legalities that go with it can sometimes bring out the worst in a family, and, given the distance between June’s children, you’d think that’s where the film was heading. The dramatic potential is there, but Winslet backs away from that, giving us instead a film that wears its heart firmly on its sleeve, and just about anywhere else. The tone softens and, as the narrative moves on, it becomes progressively damp.
The big attraction of Goodbye June is its cast, which is packed with some of the cream of British talent, plus one of Australia’s best. But, once again, it proves to be a disappointment, with some of the characters woefully underdeveloped and the actors concerned never allowed to flourish. The hippy Helen has little to do other than be the bearer of a forthcoming baby – when somebody dies, a new addition to the family isn’t far away – which means Collette is pushed to the sidelines, while Stephen Merchant is even more squandered as Molly’s well-intentioned but hapless husband. He’s barely allowed a couple of scenes and is just a target for his domineering wife, whose biggest concern seems to be an organic diet. The others in the line-up have a better time, although with some key back stories left floating in mid-air, there’s little or no chance of you getting to know the family properly. June and Bernie, for instance, seem to be total opposites. She’s strong and clearly educated; he lives in a little world of his own and is nowhere near her equal. How their love started is buried in time. All we’re allowed to know is that it’s still intact, but the idea that there’s an interesting story there is inescapable.
There’s no doubting the sincerity in Goodbye June’s efforts to examine attitudes to death and our reluctance to face the inevitable, but the Christmas setting gets in the way, and it’s soon bogged down by festive traditions. One brief conversation is all it takes to heal rifts that have widened over the years, and it beggars belief. The schmaltzy ending just adds to the implausibility of it all, leaving you with the feeling that Winslet and Anders simply couldn’t face the idea of showing us a less-than-happy family at Christmas.
★★
In cinemas from December 12th and on Netflix from December 24th / Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn, Fisayo Akinade / Dir: Kate Winslet / Netflix / 15
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