Goodbye June review: New Netflix movie is a near flawless directorial debut for Kate Winslet but youll cry your eyes out

Date:
Thu, 11 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Description:
Did I have Helen Mirren being fictionally killed off on my Christmas bingo card? No but I'm so glad she agreed to star in new Netflix movie Goodbye June.

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Is Goodbye June a Christmas movie , or a movie that simply has Christmas in it? I'm not sure but what I do know is that you won't stream a more tragically beautiful film this festive season.

It's quite a choice to drop a film that follows a dying woman's last days on Christmas Eve , but I can see why Netflix made the decision. If anything, the timing drives home the importance of hugging your loved ones that bit
tighter, and never missing the chance to tell someone you love them.

In a nutshell, mom and grandmother June's (Helen Mirren) cancer has spread, sending her to hospital for what she and her family know will be the last few days of her life. Doting son Connor (Johnny Flynn) and his sisters, highly-strung Julia (Kate Winslet, who also makes her directorial debut), internally angry Molly (Andrea Riseborough) and flighty expat Helen (Toni Colette) spend as much time as they can by their mothers' bedside.

Along with June's ailing husband Bernie (Timothy Spall), the quartet's job is to give June the best send-off possible, despite a myriad of issues and long-held grudges making emotions run even higher than youd expect in such a scenario.

Reading those last two paragraphs may well have put you in mind of your own family, whether its particular people or a similar situation and that's one of the great strengths of Goodbye June. Our cast might be A-list, but here they're grounded, and their relatability helps to deliver what at times feels more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a drama.

The movie is something of a family affair off-screen as well as on, and some more cynical critics might be tempted to brand it as a nepo baby creation (Winslet stars and directs and her son Joe Anders writes the script). I actually think their family ties are a huge advantage here... and thank God Winslet is now trying her (very successful) hand at directing. Watching Goodbye June is like looking into my own past and you might feel that way
too

One of the biggest compliments you can give an actor is that they fully inhabit a role they take on. Were not watching Helen Mirren play a dying grandmother here, were watching June dying.

When I look at June, I see my own grandmother, who died two years ago in similar circumstances, surrounded by her family. Every detail takes me back there, from her haircut and cardigan down to the pearl necklace and the gold ring she can no longer wear.

In a way, I'm projecting here, as I didn't get to be there for my grandmother's final moments the peace June and her family ultimately find is something I hope my own family did too. But there's something universally relatable in June's situation.

"Masterclass Mirren" (as I'm now calling her) delivers a performance up there with The Queen so it was a shock to learn from Winslet's press tour that she'd initially refused the role, explaining she never plays characters with dementia or cancer. I'm so glad she broke her own rule for Winslet, and I really think they've created something incredibly special.

There's a scene in Goodbye June where June is left alone in hospital to
sleep, and she turns to the window and finally allows herself to shed a few tears after putting on a brave face for everyone else. Mirren conveys vulnerability and traumatic catharsis utterly convincingly, in a scene that will resonate with any woman who has ever lain awake crying in the small
hours because life has gotten too much (which is probably all of us).

It's the little details the family bickering, the gentle ribbing, the chaos of bringing up children, and the occasionally overwhelming reality of simply existing that make Goodbye June feel so well-rounded, even if I can never watch it over Christmas again. Whoever thought of Toni Colette for this movie needs a raise This lot could be a real-life family. (Image credit: Netflix)

What might surprise you given the movies synopsis is how tenderly funny Goodbye June is. Even in the darkest of moments, theres laughter, most often courtesy of Spall and Riseborough.

The films casting is inspired across the board. Mirren is an obvious score, and Spall isn't far behind her. If Winslet and Riseborough did a 23 and Me ancestry test and found out they were related, I wouldn't be surprised Julia and Molly are the most convincingly fractious of siblings, and youll absolutely believe that their grudges really are decades old.

For me though, it's Colette as Helen who is the most inspired inclusion. She has the least amount of screentime, and casting an Aussie as Winslet's sister can't have been a subconscious choice (no matter how good Colette is at accents). When her character is revealed as a chakra-aligned free spirit who has emigrated to Florida to expand her practice, it all makes perfect sense.

Helen is the ideal counterweight to her sisters, and provides some measure of solace to lonesome brother Connor. And, by way of a B-plot involving her, Goodbye June also examines late-in-life pregnancy, effortlessly threading
back into the idea of June's memory living on.

Anders' script is thoroughly convincing and sharply observed, which is particularly impressive given his relative youthfulness. You can take your pick from any of Goodbye Junes cast and identify exactly which one you'd be, thanks to his expertly drawn character portraits. That said, theres perhaps a little bit of all of them in us we feel represented in Julia's overwhelming sense of responsibility, Helen's growing and all-consuming sense of fear, Connor's alienation, or Molly's frustration with the world around her.

Visually, there's definitely a Netflix-specific feel to the movie that's becoming increasingly noticeable across the platform's content. In the
context of a Christmas movie, I think it works, akin to a really sad version of The Holiday . But Winslet's vision as a director lifts the movie above the everyday; as much as I hated being told that actors make the best writers and directors while doing my master's degree (I'm not an actor, and Im sure non-actors in the industry are tired of hearing it too), she makes a convincing case for the notion.

At this point it probably goes without saying that you need to steel yourself to watch Goodbye June , but youll be richly rewarded in return.

To witness people enduring great pain, even if those people are fictional characters, asks us to reflect on what truly matters in life, and it can be a deeply affecting and yes, consoling experience.

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