Kate Winslet's feature directing debut, 'Goodbye June,' is a family movie scripted by her son Joe Anders. The film is a well-intentioned yuletide heartwarmer with a star-studded cast, but it ultimately feels like a two-hour John Lewis Christmas TV ad without the logo. Despite a few nice lines and sharp moments, the movie is submerged in a treacly soup of sentimentality, with cartoony characterisation and a sense that the characters are not quite earthlings.
Helen Mirren stars as June, an affectionate but sharp-tongued matriarch diagnosed with terminal cancer just before Christmas. Her quarrelling family must assemble in her hospital room, where June uses her last days to cure her adult children's unspoken hurt. The family includes a stressed careerist (Winslet), a stay-at-home mum (Andrea Riseborough), a hippy-dippy natural birth counsellor (Toni Collette), and a troubled soul (Johnny Flynn), along with their various kids. Timothy Spall plays June's daft old husband Bernie, who likes a drink and cannot talk about his feelings.
The impressive cast gives their considerable all, with Winslet delivering a restrained, controlled performance. A big confrontation scene between Winslet and Riseborough in the hospital corridor is well-managed, but a comparable scene between Flynn and Spall is resolved in a wordless musical montage. The plot hinges on Bernie realising that time is running out and that liberties must be taken with the calendar for June to witness the Christmas Day nativity scene her family has promised to put on for her.
While there is nothing wrong with a weepie or big emotional moments, 'Goodbye June' is too unreal and contrived in its sugary farewell. The film's sentimentality smothers any genuine emotion, leaving a cartoony and unsatisfying experience.
