Should You Watch ‘Goodbye June’? Review of Kate Winslet’s Netflix Debut

From Working Title Films & Director/Producer Kate Winslet, Goodbye June is a family affair from start to finish – a personal script from first time screenwriter Joe Anders who passed off his work (literally coursework from the newly 22 year old at Britain’s National Film & Television School) to his mother (the aforementioned Oscar winning actress Winslet) with a subject that hit incredibly close to home: the loss of an elder matriarch; something Anders & Winslet endured several years ago when Winslet’s mother passed away from her battle with cancer. 

With her son’s permission, Winslet set out to make this film her own as she took the reins as a first-time director. As a particularly intimate story to her, she surrounded herself with the comforts of familiar friends and colleagues, from cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler from Winslet’s HBO show The Regime & Steve Jobs to composer Ben Harlan, who previously taught music to her children and former co-stars Helen Mirren & Andrea Riseborough, just to name a few.

At its core, the familiarity of the story is not just with Winslet and her family, but also with much of its audience. Told from the perspective of almost every generation involved, Goodbye June follows a group of four adult siblings, their children, & their eccentric father as they’re thrust together after an unexpected turn in their mother June’s health. Taking place only a short time before Christmas with a potential loss staring them in the face, the foursome must navigate their own messy dynamics & complicated feelings in order to give June her final goodbye. 

The best description I can give for a story like this is that of a wish; a wish that June will leave this world in peace & comfort, a wish that her daughters will reconcile before she goes, a wish that people can actually die with dignity and proper care, a wish that we may all be so lucky to be surrounded by love and song when our time comes.

But a wish also tends to strain the credulity of our reality, seeming too good to be true, and colored with rose-tinted glasses. Mix in a healthy dose of sentimentality, Yuletide charm, & a well-placed Ray Charles standard and you’ll land right in the sweet spot of Winslet & Anders’ delicately constructed love letter to the well-loved woman who meant a great deal to the family she left behind. 

But, just because the film is more Pollyanna than the undignified medical hellscape we often find ourselves involved in when our loved ones reach their final stages, it doesn’t mean that the film cannot be effective & moving when the right moment strikes, especially at this time of year.

Goodbye June is flooded with final pleas & last looks that I defy anyone with two eyes and a heartbeat to deny. Helen Mirren, who reportedly turns down any role involving illness, fragility, & death including this one at first, gives the film the anchor it needs and the strongest form of authenticity the film can muster. Holding court between morphine drips, refereeing sibling squabbles, & lamenting what she’ll miss while slowly accepting death’s embrace is hard to convey while mostly confined to a hospital bed; but Mirren does so with a measured mix of stubborn fire and stately grace that only she can provide.

The story is at its best when viewed through the eyes of Johnny Flynn’s Connor: the only brother of the 4 siblings, the only one still living at home, and the one who found his mother lying on the floor of their family kitchen. He has a softness to him that is unlike his 3 sisters; a reluctant artist’s sincerity, depression, & thoughtfulness. His mother adores him and coddles him with a warmth that normally doesn’t become her. He’ll drink with his dad and tell him the truth when he needs to hear it. His heart buoys the characters around him and leads them down the right path, even when he often can’t get out of his own way. Flynn’s natural gentleness along with his shaggy failed English major aesthetic allow him to slip in and out of the emotionality of the movie like a cat slinking around from lap to nap.

With Flynn & Mirren’s performances, some genuinely moving scenes, and a cozy Christmas backdrop, Goodbye June may connect enough with viewers at an emotionally raw time of year. However, the impact may be muted some by some weaker characters (whatever Toni Collette’s Helen character is supposed to bring to the story), predictable & borderline mawkish plotting, and some contrivances that may be considered off-putting. Winslet’s direction & assembling of talent is worthy of a chance to be moved, but be prepared for that sentimental manipulation we all prepare for during the holiday season.

Watch Goodbye June If You Liked

• His Three Daughters
• The Family Stone
• The Farewell

MVP of Goodbye June

Helen Mirren as June

An Oscar & Emmy-winning actress probably doesn’t crave one more accolade, but, oh well, here’s one more. 

As June, Mirren is the center of it all; the matriarch who can be lucid enough & strong enough with her situation that she can still be who she needs to be for her family. Mirren presents strength, class, & raw emotion while being largely confined to a bed-ridden performance. The believability of June’s spirit & grace when faced with her own mortality can only be realized with an actress of Mirren’s caliber. She is the anchor, the glue, & the presence the film and this fictional needed most. 

During its more relatable moments, Goodbye June is a touching lament to the ones that bring us together and the ones we mourn their absence during the holiday season. If you can forgive the story’s conveniences, manipulations, & lack of realism, Winslet’s intimate look at dying on your own terms and the family dynamics around it may hit you right in the feels this Christmas.