With a cast like this, how can you resist taking a peak at this Christmastime film that’s also a dying-elderly-mother piece? Featuring four of the most reliable actors of their respective generations and directed by one of them, Goodbye June tells the story of a British family whose matriarch, June (Helen Mirren), is finally losing her long battle with cancer and has only a couple of weeks left to live. Her husband Bernie (Timothy Spall) is effectively worthless without her, so their grown son, Connor (Johnny Flynn), who lives with them takes it upon himself to call two of his three sisters—Julia (Kate Winslet, marking her directing debut as well) and Molly (Andrea Riseborough)—after June collapses in the family kitchen, asking them to come to the hospital as soon as possible.
Once the doctors explain to the family how quickly June’s cancer has progressed since her last round of chemo, they struggle and fight about what to do next. Molly wants June to go home to die, June isn’t sure, but when someone finally asks June what she wants to do, she makes it clear she feels comfortable and safe in the hospital and wants to stay there. There’s a kind male nurse named Angel (the wonderfully calming Fisayo Akinade) that is tending to her most of the time, and his stable presence is a sharp contradictory vibe to June’s chaotic family.
Eventually, someone calls the eldest sister, Helen (Toni Collette), a hippie with crystals and good energy and sage burning, who also happens to be pregnant with her first child at her advanced age and is slightly panicked about her entire situation. And along with a collection of seven grandchildren, the grown siblings set about making their mother’s final weeks (which just happen to include the run-up to Christmas) as pleasant as possible, with mixed results.
Writer Joe Anders (Winslet’s 22-year-old son with former husband Sam Mendes) makes an impressive screenplay debut even if some of the sequences toward the end of the film are a bit corny. When the family realizes that June probably won’t make it until Christmas, they decide to bring her Christmas Day a little early, including a full-fledged nativity play with impressive sets for something that was thrown together essentially in a day. And even if that doesn’t quite work, there are more intimate and emotionally resonant moments including a reconciliation between Julia and Molly, orchestrated by June.
The film has moments of stinging humor, an abundance of honest discussions about family, and a clear understanding that despite conflicts within the family unit, they are all working toward a common goal because they care deeply for June. Goodbye June can get messy, chaotic, and even a bit heavy handed at times, but there are no manufactured villains for us to root against and the heart of every character is both good and actively breaking in a way that makes us feel for their situation. It also helps the film that some of the best actors on the planet are playing the lead characters and help elevate the film’s weaker scenes. Maybe not the ideal Christmas movie to watch with the family, but a solid first effort from Winslet as filmmaker.
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
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