‘Goodbye June’ movie review: Kate Winslet’s directorial debut is a charming weepie

A few weeks before Christmas, when 30-something Connor (Johnny Flynn) who lives with his parents, sees his mother, June (Helen Mirren) unconscious on the floor, he calls out to his father, Bernie (Timothy Spall), before calling for the ambulance.

We learn that June is suffering from a terminal illness and with the last round of chemotherapy failing to work, the doctors can only offer palliative care.

From the hospital, Connor calls his sisters, Julia (Kate Winslet), who is driving her children to a nativity play rehearsal while fielding work calls, and Molly (Andrea Riseborough), a stay-at-home mom who prefers the clean, organic lifestyle.

Molly is driven to distraction by her husband Jerry’s (Stephen Merchant), absentmindedness — maybe she should not leave the shopping to him?

The sisters reach hospital simultaneously but ignore each other, establishing a running feud and unsaid resentments. The family reacts to the news in different ways. Bernie, who lost his foot in an accident (which he describes in horrific detail), seems to feel the hospital is just another place to watch telly and drink beer.

Connor is terrified and grief-stricken at the thought of his mother dying. Julia tries to understand the options and do everything she can to make her mother’s stay comfortable.

Molly lashes out at everyone from the doctors, especially Dr. David Titford (Jeremy Swift, Spratt from Downton Abbey), for clicking his pen, to the palliative care givers who she describes as “teaching people how to die.”

There is another sister, Helen (Toni Collette), the eldest, who is all about chakras and releasing negative energy. She is teaching holistic dance in Berlin and Connor hopes either Julia or Molly would have informed her of June’s turn for the worse. Julia finally gets through to Helen, who says she will come immediately with fragrances and flowers to chase away the negative energy.

June is the true matriarch snapping at Helen not to wear yellow as it does not suit her and trying her best to get her warring daughters to reconcile. June decides to confront death on her own terms, in her own time. She is helped in this endeavour by empathetic Nurse Angel (Fisayo Akinade), who understands more than anyone what June is trying to achieve.

Written by Joe Anders, Winslet’s son, as part of his screenwriting course and inspired by his grandmother’s passing from ovarian cancer when he was 13, Goodbye June is sweet and sentimental, wrapped in glitzy London Christmas vibes.

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The film marks Winslet’s and Anders’ debut as director and screenwriter respectively. One is willing to forgive its shallowness and predictability thanks to excellent performances from Spall and a regal Mirren, to Winslet, Collette, and Riseborough.

Goodbye June is a film you could enjoy depending on your frame of mind — if you are in the mood for cute children, an adorable nativity play, Christmas carols sweetly sung (with ‘Away in a Manger’ especially poignant), karaoke, and an excess of love after loads of sibling sniping, then you can surely tuck your feet under a cosy throw and plunge straight into this family drama. And if treacle-sweet family stories are not your thing, there is Harlan Coben’s latest scheduled for January 1.

Goodbye June is currently streaming on Netflix