Christopher Robin
An oddly light and inconsequential film, a cynical viewer could say it’s predictable and thinly-plotted, but the nostalgia and affection for Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends may win others over.
Premise: Having served in World War II and now struggling to make ends meet at the luggage company where he works, the adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) has long forgotten his childhood adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. But as the pressures of work threaten to drive him further from his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter Madeline, a visit from Pooh may be just what he needs.
Review:
I normally try to avoid spoilers in my reviews, but there really is so little plot to Christopher Robin, that to talk about it at all is to pretty much say what happens. Ewan McGregor plays the now-grown-up Christopher Robin, who is so preoccupied (understandably) with providing for his family as the company he works for is threatening mass jobs losses, that he’s grown distant from his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter Madeline. After being told that he has to work on a business-saving presentation over the weekend, he pulls out of his family’s long-awaited weekend trip to their cottage in the countryside, choosing instead to stay alone in London to work.
But almost as soon as he’s alone, he’s unexpectedly reunited with Winnie-the-Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings, who has voiced Pooh for Disney since 1988), who has become lost in London while looking for his friends. What follows is a gentle, meandering adventure as Christopher Robin sets out to return Pooh to the Hundred Acre Wood and find his friends, so that Christopher can then get back to work.
“…the story of a fundamentally good man who has just lost touch with his priorities…”
In truth, not a lot really happens in Christopher Robin at all, but in an odd way, that’s half of its charm. The film isn’t necessarily concerned about pulling the animated characters out of their usual environment and sending them on wacky adventures in the real world – instead most of the film takes place in the Hundred Acre Wood and has a strange, hazy feel that perfectly captures the spirit of those long summer days as children when you were busy doing nothing.
Ewan McGregor is great as Christopher Robin, always keeping him the right side of likeable. This is not a “Scrooge-style” story of a bad man who is redeemed – this is a story of a fundamentally good man who has just lost touch with his priorities, as the pressures of “real life” have subdued his sense of fun and whimsy. This is shown nicely in his relationships with his wife and daughter, where it is always clear that he loves them dearly and wants the best for them, but he’s lost sight of the fact that what they really want more than anything else is to spend time with him. McGregor’s performance is all the more impressive when you consider that for the majority of the film, he’s acting against imaginary characters that aren’t really there.
“…a sweet & innocent film, riding on a wave of whimsy & nostalgia…”
If you wanted to criticise the film, you could say that the rest of the “human” cast really don‘t get much to do – the excellent Hayley Atwell is hardly stretched playing Evelyn, Christopher’s wife, and Bronte Carmichael is perfectly fine as their daughter, Madeline, but is more of a plot device that a rounded character. But the key relationship in this film is between Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh (or, if you wanted to over psychoanalyse it, between Christopher and his own inner child), so it seems churlish to complain that it’s given so much screen time, even if it is at the expense of the supporting characters.
Ultimately, this is not a film for cynics – but neither is it an undisputed heart-warming family favourite in that way that, for example, the Paddington films are. Instead, it’s somewhere in the middle - a sweet and innocent film, that should appeal to younger children with its sense of whimsy, and to young-at-heart adults with its sense of nostalgia.
