Movie Review: Goodbye June (2025)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Kate Winslet  

Starring: Kate Winslet, Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette, Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In England, elderly cancer patient June (Helen Mirren) is hospitalized just before Christmas, and doctors determine that her death is near. Her family gathers, including husband Bernie (Timothy Spall), daughters Julia (Kate Winslet), Molly (Andrea Riseborough), and Helen (Toni Collette), and son Connor (Johnny Flynn). The responsible Julia and highly strung Molly are barely on speaking terms, while Helen is into new age mysticism and Connor suffers from anxieties. From her hospital death bed, June tries to bring the family together.

What Works Well: In her directorial debut, Kate Winslet tries to inject a few flashes of style into the sappy and mundane material, but is hampered by a limited number of sets (most of the drama takes place around June's hospital bed). The stellar cast members do deliver steady performances, and each family member gets a few moments to shine. A bit of spiky humour breaks through the gloom.

What Does Not Work As Well: Quite inferior to similar families-waiting-for-death dramas like Two Weeks and His Three Daughters, here the characters are stereotypes, the emotions superficial, conflicts are contrived, and the public hospital is remarkably tidy, empty, and attentive. Seemingly intractable years-long disputes are resolved by saccharine soliloquies ("I envy you" is matched by "I work so hard") before being sealed with a hug. The running time is a solid 20 minutes too long, and to triple underline "harried mom" and "circle of life" tropes, most scenes are cluttered with gaggles of children being shuffled in and out of cars and strollers.

Key Quote:

June: Maybe if I'm lucky I'll come back as snow.

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