This biological drama transports us back to 1916. Alan Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) has just returned from war, home to his wife, Daphne Milne (Margot Robbie). While he suffers with -post-war-bouts of PTSD, she reminds him that Plato says, “If you don’t think about the thing, It ceases to exist.”
But that doesn’t help a man who jumps at the pop of a champagne cork, or flinches at the flash of stage lights (he’s a playwright). Milne revisits and ponders, “What did we fight this war for?” The country is emotionally wounded. So is he.
When their son, Billy Moon a.k.a. Christopher Robin (Will Tilston) is born, it seems his mother, Daphne, is suffering, too. She wanted a girl. A boy only means that he, too, may someday go off to war. As a result, Daphne wants little to do with him. And besides, Mommy and Daddy are socialites. Or at least Mommy is…so they hire Olive (Kelly Macdonald) as Nanny, a woman who steals the movie…the silent pain on her face evident that this little boy needs his mother and a proper childhood.
But when Daphne leaves for the London ‘scene,’ and the Nanny takes a leave of absence because of her ailing mother, the father and son (the two Milne men) are left to their own devices. Suddenly Pooh (named for a zoo bear from Winnepeg named “Winnie”) comes to life. Eeyore and Piglet follow.
Through the lovable creatures, A. A. Milne is able create a world to help others escape. He no longer wants to write comedies that make people laugh. He wants to write stories that make people ‘see.’ Afterall, war has altered his perception of life.
Together, father and son, Billy Moon (because as Billy Milne he couldn’t pronounce his surname) and ‘Blue’ his dad’s nickname, have their own coded-little -language, which resulted in the iconic book.
When the novel is published and sold out, the fan mail arrives in big bags via bicycle. The postal worker complains that she can no longer deliver the bulk of love letters. She’s losing her balance on the bike!
When family etiquette is questioned, the Nanny is forced to resign, and Christopher Robin loses the only woman he’s ever loved. We see a lonely boy longing for his mother, and living with a father preoccupied by his writing, and the bullying of his school chums. One can only imagine how a sequel about a grown-up Christopher Robin might focus on his hatred of all women.
As his visible/invisible co-existence carries on in the fame of it all, it’s clear that his life is good for the public, but not good for the boy – now expected to be the character in the very books he never asked for. He wanted his father to write for him not about him.
The movie is clearly about being careful what you wish for. It’s a painful but whimsical look into the life that became the most beloved children’s classic of all time.
Directed by Simon Curtis (Woman in Gold, My Week with Marilyn) it feels so authentic to early 20th-century England, you’ll feel as if you’re there to take tea with the family, overlooking 100 Acre Wood. (Note: Bring your Kleenex) 3 ½ tiaras