Winnie the Who? Goodbye Christopher Robin starring Domhnall Gleeson & Margot Robbie has its premiere #book2movies

Domhnall Gleeson stars in Goodbye Christopher Robin

Goodbye Christopher Robin has had its splashy premiere and the reviews are in. 

If you’re the really bookish type, especially a lover of Brit lit, will you be able to resist the film about author A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his relationship with his son Christopher Robin, the little boy that inspired the Winnie the Pooh literary empire anyway? Scroll down below the video for more. 

Domhnall Gleeson with Margot Robbie

But first, a short 3 minute interview with Domhnall Gleeson from the premiere in which Gleeson admits that Winnie the Pooh was not part of his childhood, not the A.A. Milne books, not the Disney version, nothing!

Oh my! I remember making my son a Winnie the Pooh cake for his third birthday, he spent hours playing with his Winnie the Pooh play set. A childhood without Winnie the Pooh?! I can’t help but wonder what books Domhnall Gleeson did read—or have read to him—when he was a child?

The film opens September 29th in the UK and Ireland, here in the US Goodbye Christopher Robin opens on October 13th.

Sherin Linden at The Hollywood Reporter—they call it ‘compelling if not always subtle’—says 

‘where the movie truly stumbles is in its cozily cathartic wrap-up, sorting out unresolved guilt and blame in such picture-perfect fashion that Christopher Robin Milne and his famous father would likely cringe.

 Peter Debruge at Variety  

‘the film seems fixated on the irony that the boy every kid in Britain wanted to be was quite unhappy in his own skin, which as handled, isn’t just eye-opening, but tear-duct-cleansing as well.’ Debruge who calls Margot Robbie as Milne’s wife ‘distractingly beautiful, disappointingly bland’ does advise us to pack our handkerchiefs.

Debruge also advises would-be movie goers to brush up on our reading of A.A. Milne’s work especially his poem Vespers, in order to pick up on the inside references. 

Here’s the poem.

Vespers

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,Droops on the little hands little gold head.Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. 

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.Wasn't it fun in the bath to-night?The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good. 

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,And pull the hood right over my head,And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,And nobody knows that I'm there at all. 

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.And what was the other I had to say?I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,Droops on the little hands little gold head.Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. 

The Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn) directed film stars Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly MacDonald and Will Tilston as Christopher Robin.