writers_reign Review of Goodbye Christopher Robin

Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)

Little Boy Reels At The Foot Of The Bed

[7/10 · 30 September 2017]

I am arguably one of a handful of people who have never read a single word of A.A. Milne. I've been an avid reader all my life yet somehow Milne eluded me. I recall a family gathering when I would have been around ten and noticing a cousin with a copy of 'The House At Pooh Corner'. I assumed it was a one-off ephemeral as a butterfly ... I was, hover, conversant with lines like 'if I open my fingers a little bit more I can see nanny's dressing-gown on the door ...' and 'They're changing guards at Buckingham Palace ...' but made absolutely no connection with Winnie The Pooh. So I came to Goodbye Christopher Robin in more or less ignorance. My first impression was of lyrical photography, next it struck me as Merchant/Ivory lite and I think both impressions hold up. As a study of a dysfunctional family it was also up to snuff; traumatised father, hedonistic bitch of a mother, small boy in the middle. It was all rather well done and I did learn that Milne senior had been a successful journalist and playwright long before, like Algy, he met a bear.