Kate Winslet has been evolving behind the camera, producing the biopic LEE and now making her directorial debut with this new mawkish family Christmas movie GOODBYE JUNE. Helen Mirren plays the titular protagonist, dying of cancer in her most unglamorous role to date. Her four children, husband and assorted grandkids gather around and try and sort through their various emotional issues before giving her a twee Christmas nativity play send-off. Winslet plays the financially successful, stoic elder sister. The wonderful Andrea Riseborough plays her resentful younger sister. Toni Colette plays a hippie dippie third sister who returns from Germany and apparently is desperate to be pregnant. And a dishevelled Johnny Flynn plays the sensitive son Connor. Timothy Spall plays the rather loveable but apparently emotionally disengaged dad who deals with his forthcoming grief by, I kid you not, singing karaoke. It's testament to Winslet's pull that she could assemble such a sterling cast, and as a result, this film could never be a total failure. But it's a shame that her son Joe Anders' script resorts to cheap devices to try and wring tears from our eyes. I cringed when Spall's dad began his karaoke act and the final nativity scene made me gag. Your mileage may vary.
GOODBYE JUNE is rated R and has a running time of 114 minutes. It was released on Netflix earlier this month.
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