June (Helen Mirren) is taken to hospital and learns that her cancer has recurred and the end is nigh. Her family gather at her bedside and must put aside their bickering to say goodbye.
The best Christmas movies have a bittersweet tinge, but in Kate Winslet’s directorial debut, the sadness is front and centre. There’s more of the grave than of gravy about this story of a family saying goodbye to their ailing matriarch, but also a strange sense of hope in the efforts of all involved to make their mother’s last days as comfortable as possible.
Helen Mirren is the titular June, a woman who’s approaching her death with remarkable stoicism but no false saintliness. She wants to leave her family in a better place, though she’d rather not leave them at all. Her husband Bernie (Timothy Spall) is doing his level best to avoid the whole question, while her son Connor (Johnny Flynn) is so emotionally raw already that he’s like an open wound. But it’s her daughters who are June’s biggest concern: Julia (Winslet), with the weight of the world on her shoulders; organic obsessive Molly (Andrea Riseborough), who nearly vibrates with agitation in every scene; and woo-woo Helen (Toni Collette), the one who’s always been faintly unmoored. Add in assorted spouses and grandchildren, and it makes for a full visitors’ schedule but a febrile mix of intense emotions.
Winslet’s son Joe Anders wrote the script, and for the most part it’s an excellent first effort that digs into the strange mix of sadness and humour and sometimes fury that death can provoke.
Winslet’s son Joe Anders wrote the script, and for the most part it’s an excellent first effort that digs into the strange mix of sadness and humour and sometimes fury that death can provoke. A few scenes feel a little on the nose (did Fisayo Akinade’s saintly nurse need to be named Angel?), but if there are other faults, the strength of this cast more than papers over them. Everyone’s brought their A-game to Winslet’s first outing as coach, and she evidently had a sure hand for what they need to do great work.
There’s a lot of humour in the family’s sometimes hapless attempts to help one another through, but considerable emotion here too. June’s determination to play her ultimate trump card (“I’m dying”) to leave everyone in a better place is nicely portrayed, while everyone else’s mix of avoidance, acceptance and grief feels real and earned. This is not a story where you should expect last-minute miracles, but one where the hope of a good death is the best any of the family — or any of us — can hope for. And yet when it comes, we still won’t be prepared.
A strong directorial debut from Winslet with — as you’d expect — stellar performances from her cast. It might be the perfect antidote to other, overly saccharine Christmas films.