Dir: Kate Winslet | UK Drama 90
Directing for the first time with a script by her son Joe Anders, Kate Winslet assembles a starry cast for a bittersweet crowd-pleaser about grief and family loss.
Helen Mirren is June, a stoical mother in the final stages of cancer, but with no intention of making a fuss. Propped up in hospital and surrounded by her husband and family, June is going to leave on her own terms at Christmas, a time of year that is not always cheerful.
The adult kids are not a bad bunch, like all of us, warped by life but pushing on with it all the same. June is married to her hopeless husband Bernie (Spall) who’d rather be down the pub or watching the sport on telly than dealing with his dying wife, or the family.
The three sisters are never going to get on for the usual reasons. Winslet plays Julia, the financial success with her head screwed on but a handicapped child. Toni Collette’s Helen has decamped to sunnier climes where she’s gone spiritual and teaches yoga. And Andrea Riseborough is Molly, a vicious vegan, happily married but living on the breadline. Johnny Flynn is calm Connor, the one in the background, balancing it out.
Mirren is amazing as a no-nonsense matriarch pulling it all together peacefully from her death bed. She has come to terms with life and offers a lesson in how to face up to death philosophically. Goodbye June guarantees a few laughs and some valuable insight. It could be this year’s low brow answer to It’s a Wonderful Life @Meredith Taylor
IN CINEMAS FROM 12 December 2025