This article contains major character or plot details.
Joy and melancholy are contrasting emotions that can often occur together, as they do in Kate Winslet’s poignant family drama Goodbye June. Set against the backdrop of the Christmas season, a time when families gather and celebrate, the film explores one of the worst kinds of moments. It also finds the hope, connection, and deep love within it.
In Goodbye June, June (played by Helen Mirren) finds herself in the hospital after her cancer worsens and her health rapidly declines. Her four adult children, Helen (Toni Collette), Julia (Winslet), Molly (Andrea Riseborough), and Connor (Johnny Flynn), rush to her bedside. They must put their differences aside to make their mother comfortable in her last chapter and to help their father, Bernie (Timothy Spall), come to terms with it.
Through laughter and tears, each of the siblings navigates their impending loss in their own unique way, all while trying to bring some light and levity to their mother. She remains quick-witted and attentive despite her condition. “Some of our most complicated relationships in life are with the people we love the most in the world, the people we are closest to, the people we need the most for support and care,” says Winslet. “The power of a good goodbye is to remember to love each other in the present.”
Goodbye June reminds us that the experience of losing someone is just as universal as loving them. “I do hope that people are able to perhaps see something of themselves in this story, these characters, these family dynamics,” says Winslet. “If anyone has experienced loss in some way and is processing grief, perhaps this film might make them feel a little easier about talking about those things — grief and loss isn’t something that we’re very good at talking about at all.”
After you’re done reaching for the tissues, read on to learn more about the love that went into making Goodbye June.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KIMBERLEY FRENCH
Is Goodbye June based on a true story?
No, but the film came from a personal place for screenwriter Joe Anders. “I was encouraged to write something from the heart, and I just started mulling over these ideas. Eventually, I came upon the idea of Goodbye June — a film about death that felt accessible and was full of love and hope,” he says. “I lost my grandmother when I was 13, and I’ll never forget how wonderful and also odd it was that all the family was around her and together in sending her off in a peaceful way. The family was able to give her a passing that she deserved, and it was sort of amazing.”
Anders sought to infuse Goodbye June with just as much humor as it has heart, imbuing it with a tone that closely mirrored the unpredictable journey of grief. “I tried to write a story about how a family are pulled closer together through the loss and not pulled apart and destroyed by it,” says the screenwriter. “I wanted to tell the story of something that happens to us all. But I didn’t want it to be depressing. I wanted it to feel uplifting and cathartic in some way.”
Winslet was captivated by her son’s vision from an early draft. “I read it, and it was clear to me, having read hundreds of screenplays over the years, that my son was indeed a proper writer. It was apparent that the potential to make this into a film was real,” the filmmaker remembers. “His story was universal and funny, and somehow he’d nailed the Britishness of each character and the environment so accurately that it was a truly impressive read.”
How did Kate Winslet approach directing Goodbye June?
The film was shot over the course of 35 days in London, and Winslet wanted to take a completely different approach from the ones she’s experienced as an actor. To create an intimate environment that would allow for vulnerability from her ensemble, she limited the number of crew on set and hid much of the sound recording equipment. She had each actor wear their own microphone as opposed to using large, looming boom mics, and she set the cameras up in such a way that the crew could step away during filming. This encouraged the actors to feel the freedom and safety to experiment without limits or hesitations. “Establishing an environment in which everyone felt that they could trust me was the most important thing of all,” Winslet says, “because it meant that whatever those actors were going to do at any given moment, they knew that I was there to support them, to listen, to let them try things. But most importantly, I was going to catch it on camera and make sure that those performances were preserved and upheld.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY KIMBERLEY FRENCH
Why is June in the hospital?
In the beginning of Goodbye June, June is rushed to the hospital by her husband, Bernie (Spall), and her son, Connor (Flynn), after she collapses in their home. As her other children convene at the hospital, they learn that June’s cancer has rapidly progressed after her last round of chemotherapy proved ineffective. The cancer spread through her abdomen and pelvis, and the doctors concluded that she wasn’t strong enough to survive another operation. Devastated to learn their mother only has two weeks to live, the siblings prioritize keeping June comfortable and giving her one last Christmas to remember.
What poem does Connor read for June?
Connor keeps a close watch on June at her hospital bedside, and she asks him to read to her. After the shy Connor initially refuses his mother’s request, he ultimately relents. He chooses to read “If There Are Any Heavens” by American poet E.E. Cummings, which describes the author’s reckoning with a possible afterlife for his parents. It’s a poignant experience for the mother and son, punctuated by an unexpected moment with eldest sister Helen (Collette). Winslet wanted to keep the “humor alive” throughout Goodbye June, even as her characters come to grips with their mother’s condition. “[It was] having [this] wonderful scene with Johnny Flynn and Helen Mirren, which for a lot of people is the first time they start crying within the film, and then snapping people out of it by having Toni Collette enter the room in the next frame playing a turtle-shaped whistle, looking like a carnival and being completely free and hilarious,” she explains.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KIMBERLEY FRENCH
Why do June and her family celebrate Christmas early?
As June’s health worsens, and it becomes clear she won’t make it through the holidays, Bernie leads his children and grandchildren to celebrate “the best Christmas the world has ever seen” a week early in the hospital. Their festivities culminate in a rousing family reenactment of the nativity scene, complete with costumes and songs. During this play and surrounded by her lineage, June finally passes away, and each family member gets a chance to say goodbye.
Despite the scene’s somber ending, Winslet says the on-set atmosphere was anything but serious. “It was so much fun. The children were allowed to choose their costumes, and they could choose the characters they were going to play as well, so everybody felt really actively invested in putting on this show for their nana,” she says. “There was a natural magic about the experience.”
Winslet took a unique approach to working with the troupe of young child actors on a movie about death. “Something we had to make sure of with the little ones was that we didn’t say the words death or dying or dead. We would say things like, ‘Nana June’s having a lovely sleep now,’ ” she explains. “But, actually, children are so extraordinary at reacting to what’s right in front of them if they believe it. And these were children who truly believed, so much that they reacted accordingly. It was really quite extraordinary to see.”
In the film’s final moments, a year later during their first Christmas without June, the family gathers again. There’s much to celebrate, with Helen’s new baby and Connor’s burgeoning relationship with his mother’s nurse, Angel (Fisayo Akinade), joining their close-knit unit. “Good memories help you live forever,” says June in a letter she left for Helen before her passing. “Just like me.” They hold their fierce matriarch, and her spirit of tenderness and joy, close — even in her absence.
