I had been looking forward to watching "Christopher Robin" since its release last year. I heard that it was different, and not exactly a happy or gloomy film, but something thought-provoking. Indeed it was thought-provoking, and if you are in need of a message about putting family before work, or a sensible amount of play before heedless ambition, then this is a film I can recommend.
However, still, I thought "Christopher Robin" was a bit formulaic. Somehow many of the lines, especially the ones meant to be inspirational, just didn't work in the context of who was saying it (such as Pooh giving koan-like advice "Keep North, Christopher Robin") or who was meant to receive it (somehow Christopher Robin, who has ignored his wife and daughter for years, is convinced by Winnie the Pooh in a single weekend because. . .?). I just didn't buy the transformation of the character entirely. It seemed like Winne the Pooh was stretched into a character he wasn't really in order to fix the mechanics of the story, especially towards the end.
In aesthetics, "Christopher Robin" seems to have a hint of the traumatic about it. It was odd to think that Hundred Acre Wood was a place where strange creatures could be caught in a large ditch and drown, and perhaps die. Ewan McGreoger is caught in such a ditch and the rain lifts him up rather than drowns him, but still, there's a kind of verisimilitude about Hundred Acre Woods that is dangerous rather than the kind of safe haven we all know it to be. Hundred Acre Woods is not shown as CGI or very much cartoonish, so what was cute has the potential to be bizarre. . .
I'm not in a hurry to watch it again, but I guess it was ok.
However, still, I thought "Christopher Robin" was a bit formulaic. Somehow many of the lines, especially the ones meant to be inspirational, just didn't work in the context of who was saying it (such as Pooh giving koan-like advice "Keep North, Christopher Robin") or who was meant to receive it (somehow Christopher Robin, who has ignored his wife and daughter for years, is convinced by Winnie the Pooh in a single weekend because. . .?). I just didn't buy the transformation of the character entirely. It seemed like Winne the Pooh was stretched into a character he wasn't really in order to fix the mechanics of the story, especially towards the end.
In aesthetics, "Christopher Robin" seems to have a hint of the traumatic about it. It was odd to think that Hundred Acre Wood was a place where strange creatures could be caught in a large ditch and drown, and perhaps die. Ewan McGreoger is caught in such a ditch and the rain lifts him up rather than drowns him, but still, there's a kind of verisimilitude about Hundred Acre Woods that is dangerous rather than the kind of safe haven we all know it to be. Hundred Acre Woods is not shown as CGI or very much cartoonish, so what was cute has the potential to be bizarre. . .
I'm not in a hurry to watch it again, but I guess it was ok.