Christopher Robin

Christopher Robin 2018

• Director: Marc Forster
• Seen by this director: World War Z, Quantum of Solace, Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball
• Based on the book by A.A. Milne (sort of)
• Cast: Ewan Macgregor, Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael, Mark Gatiss, Oliver Ford Davies
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ewan Macgregor – Doctor Sleep, Trainspotting 2&1, American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor, Mortdecai, August Osage County, Jack the Giant Slayer, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Island, Star Wars etc, Big Fish, Young Adam, Moulin Rouge, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Shallow Grave
• Hayley Atwell – Blinded by the Light, Testament of Youth, The Pillars of the Earth
• Mark Gatiss – The Favourite, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Our Kind of Traitor, Victor Frankenstein, Wolf Hall, Being Human, Starter for 10, Bright Young Things
• Oliver Ford Davies – Hamlet, Johnny English, Star Wars etc, Titanic Town, Mrs Brown,
• Why? Ewan Macgregor
• Seen: 11 November 2022      

It must be confessed that I only read Winnie the Pooh recently and I was not enchanted. But Ewan Macgregor!

As the film opens, Christopher Robin is heading off to boarding school. Pooh and the others will miss him.

Fast forward. Christopher (Macgregor) is married to Evelyn (Atwell), returning from the war, father to Madeleine (Carmichael), working in a luggage firm, pressured by his nasty boss (Gatiss) to cut costs, pressured by wife and daughter not to work so much. He’s emotionally stunted and he has forgotten all about Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and the others.

This is Disney. If it weren’t for Ewan Macgregor I wouldn’t be watching it. He does, as always, a lovely job but it’s awfully filled with clichés. I wouldn’t go back to my childhood for anything.      

2 * of 5