Author: David Ehrlich / Source: IndieWire
Winnie the Pooh comes to life in a spirited adventure that should have spent more time focusing on its stuffed animals.
Disney/YouTube
“People say nothing is impossible,” muses Winnie the Pooh, “but I do nothing every day.” If only the lovable bear’s latest adventure were more willing to take that wisdom to heart — and if only “Christopher Robin” didn’t have so much in common with its namesake, who desperately needs to do a little bit less.
A clever, hectic chimera that brings your favorite stuffed animals to life in the real world, “Christopher Robin” awkwardly marries the handcrafted feel of A.A. Milne’s stories with the magical-realism of the animated Disney movies they inspired. The results are sweet and dreary in equal measure, like tea and honey on a bleak London day. Director Marc Forster stitches together a lovingly overstuffed comedy that reflects the best and worst of its hero. Like Christopher Robin himself, the film runs deep with all manner of repressive joy. And like Christopher Robin itself, the film is far too busy to make the most of it.
But while “Christoper Robin” may fail to make something out of nothing, it’s far too smart and spirited to make nothing out of something. On the contrary, this post-modern Pooh has a little to offer anyone who’s ever loved these characters (if also too much for everyone to love how they’re used here). At once both a little more fun and a lot more unsettling than last year’s “Goodbye Christopher Robin,” Forster’s take is likewise focused on the author’s son and frequent subject, but hinges on a conceit that liberates it from the strictures of a standard biopic.
Reimagined as a classic Disney Dad, the Christopher Robin in this film isn’t the real person who grew up to fight in World War II, marry a cousin named Lesley de Sélincourt, and open a bookshop in Dartmouth. On the contrary, this Christopher Robin is a dull, grownup version of the (fictionalized) character from his father’s writings, and he looks an awful lot like Ewan McGregor. He goes to battle — as we see for ourselves in a prologue that immediately distances this movie from the cheer and safety of most children’s fare — but comes home to a wife named Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and a miserable job as an efficiency manager at the Winslow Luggage company.
In real life, Christopher Robin’s daughter was born with severe cerebral palsy. In this alternate history, the little girl (Bronte Carmichael) is only afflicted with a workaholic father. In real life, Christopher Robin’s friends were stuffed animals. They were stitched together from old cloth, brought to…
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