Review: Kate Winslet’s ‘Goodbye June’ falls short

It isn’t that myriad aspects of the story told in the family drama “Goodbye June” won’t prove relatable to many who watch it. They will.

It isn’t that the Netflix film isn’t chock full of solid performances from talented actors. It is.

It’s that the work of Kate Winslet and Joe Anders — a first-time director and screenwriter, respectively, and mother and son — rises only to the level of “fine.”

“Fine” is good enough but nonetheless disappointing given that the plot centers around an English family dealing with the impending death of its beloved matriarch. It’s the kind of story that should violently stir your emotions.

Oh, sure, there’s a reasonably gentle swirling here and there — including in the movie’s final stretch, which is its strongest — but the guess is you won’t go through a whole box of tissues.

The titular character is portrayed by Helen Mirren (“The Queen”), who turns in the strongest work in the film as a woman at the end of a battle with cancer. You’ll find no vanity in her portrayal of June, who deals with bouts of immense pain and exhaustion — not just from the invasive disease but also from her bickering adult children.

Winslet is quite good in front of the camera as June’s second-oldest daughter Julia. Julia is juggling a successful career and three kids as her husband works a job very far away.

June’s oldest daughter, Helen (Toni Collette), is a woo-woo type — yoga, crystals, etc. — living elsewhere in the country. And then there’s Connor (Johnny Flynn), the lone son of June and her husband, Bernie (an over-the-top Timothy Spall), who lives with his parents and is the sweetest soul of the offspring. Connor is the can’t-we-all-just-get-along type, and in the hands of Flynn (“Emma”), it all feels quite sincere.

Soon, the whole bunch is at the hospital, Julia and Molly immediately butting heads over what is best for Mum. A rotation is even drawn up so they don’t visit at the same time.

Adding to the, um, fun is Bernie, who seems at least semi-oblivious to the situation, behaving obnoxiously in June’s hospital room and regularly slipping away to a pub — behavior that eventually draws the ire of Connor.

Thankfully, the latter makes a connection with an extremely kind nurse on the floor, Angel (Fisayo Akinade), who serves as a calming presence for the family as a whole. (Akinade spent “several days” shadowing doctors and nurses in preparation for the role and gives a performance perhaps second only to that of Mirren.)

According to the production notes, Anders began working on the screenplay at 19, for a class at England’s National Film and Television School, drawing inspiration from the passing of his own grandmother. Winslet encouraged him to keep working on it, eventually deciding not just to produce and act in it but also direct.

However, there are enough scenes such as the one in which June asks Julia to apply some makeup to her (when Mirren deftly delivers the line, “I’ve never died before; I want to look nice when it happens”) that make “Goodbye June” worth recommending.

Still, you can’t help but suspect the screenplay may have benefited from a pass by a more experienced writer and that a seasoned filmmaker could have drawn more from it.

2.5 stars out of 4

Rated: R for language.