Goodbye June review: Kate Winslet's directorial debut is schmaltzy but affecting

It's been a big year for famous movie stars making their first forays into feature directing. Throughout 2025, Harris Dickinson (Urchin), Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water) and Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) have all stepped behind the camera for the first time, and now it's the turn of Kate Winslet to prove her directing chops.

The Oscar-winner's debut film is Goodbye June, a tearjerking Yuletide-set drama which is getting a brief theatrical release this week ahead of arriving on Netflix on Christmas Eve. Unsurprisingly given her standing in the industry, Winslet has assembled a stellar cast of talented actors to bring the film to life, with key parts for Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn, while she's also saved a meaty role for herself.

The drama's script was notably written by Winslet's 21-year-old son Joe Anders, who was just 19 when he penned the first draft on a screenwriting course. Accusations of nepotism are inevitable (and perhaps not unfounded) and there are undoubtedly times where the screenplay does feel somewhat like the work of a novice, with a rather laboured opening act and a tendency to lean too far into schmaltz. However, there are also a number of genuinely moving touches that show an emotional maturity to Anders's work, especially in the film's latter stages.

It helps that the subject matter is inherently emotional. The film tells the story of four semi-estranged siblings (played by Winslet, Riseborough, Collette and Flynn) who are brought together and forced to work through their differences as they prepare to say goodbye to their terminally ill mother (Mirren) who has taken a turn for the worse and seems unlikely to make it to Christmas.

The idea of juggling the impending grief of losing a loved one with the unavoidable jollity of the festive season is something that will no doubt resonate with a lot of viewers, and for the most part this is handled sensitively by both Anders and Winslet. However the film's mournful tone does make it's aforementioned Netflix release date a tad curious; sure, the film is shot through with Christmas spirit and there are plenty of comic moments, but the overall sadness of the material might make it an odd choice for Christmas Eve itself.

Still, as a portrait of a complicated family dynamic, the film mostly works. The complex relationships the siblings share with each other and their emotionally distant father (Spall) are well observed, even if this film doesn't quite have the depth of another recent Netflix-released film about warring siblings thrust together to care for a dieing parent, Azazel Jacobs's His Three Daughters.

There are also some slight missteps, especially when it comes to the film's more overtly comedic beats – with Winslet and Anders not always landing on the right balance between the emotional and humorous tones. This is especially evident when it comes to Collette's character, a broadly-sketched hippie type with a penchant for interpretative dance who feels a little like she's waltzed in from another film entirely, although a small part for Steven Merchant as a hapless but well-meaning husband works better as comic relief.

But for the most part this is an effective weepy, and the A-list cast elevate the material beyond its occasionally formulaic approach. Mirren is unsurprisingly peerless as the title character, imbuing her with both an optimism (at one point we hear her pressing ahead with making plans for after the Christmas period) and acceptance of her fate, but also with a sense of regret and the feeling of unfinished business.

So while perhaps this doesn't quite announce Winslet as a major new directorial voice – her approach is more functional than eye-catching – Goodbye June is still a worthwhile film with some impressive moments, and seems likely to leave many a viewer with a tear in their eye.

Goodbye June will be released in select UK cinemas on 12th December and on Netflix on Wednesday 24th December.

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