Christopher Robin Movie Review

Christopher Robin (2018)

Rent Christopher Robin on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Alex Ross Perry and Tom McCarthy and Allison Schroeder (screenplay by), Greg Brooker and Mark Steven Johnson (story by), A.A. Milne and Ernest Shepard (based on characters created by)
Directed by: Marc Forster
Starring:  Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
Christopher Robin, now a working-class family man, encounters his childhood friend Winnie-the-Pooh, who helps him rediscover the joys of life.

Verdict
I don't know what this is, other than a blatant money grab. After the first few scenes you know exactly what will happen in this movie and how it will conclude. The story is an overworked man that ignores his family and that point is not subtle. While it has its touching moments and there are plenty of Pooh-isms, the movie doesn't even attempt to answer how or why this teddy bear is fully alive, visible to everyone.
Skip it.

Review
This hammers an often used trope hard. Christopher is a work above all else husband and father, ignoring his family to get ahead, working at all hours for a jerk boss who Christopher won't stand up to. He doesn't have fun, and he skips out on a family weekend because work calls. The movie beats this message into the ground. You know exactly how each one of those points will resolve before the opening credits start. With few surprises, it makes the movie a bit of a drag.

The one thing I couldn't figure out was whether Pooh and friends were real or a figment of Christopher's imagination. It seems other people can see Pooh, but maybe that's just from Christopher's vantage point.
I've seen Winnie the Pooh cartoons, but I don't recall whether Pooh is real or not. I assumed in this movie that it was a Calvin and Hobbes scenario where Pooh was real to Christopher as a kid, existing in his imagination. With Pooh presenting as alive to strangers, I began to wonder if this was going to be a dream. I couldn't place exactly where the dream would have started. I also wondered if it was a head injury or worse.

While this has it's moments like when Christopher starts playing again and defeating the Heffalump or when Pooh and friends appear to Christopher's daughter Madelaine, I couldn't escape the uncanny valley effect with the characters being CGI rather than cartoons.

All the Pooh-isms are great. Pooh's statements are almost vapid, but if you think about them they have a lot of depth.

"Doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something."

"I always get to where I'm going by walking away from where I've been."

The big question not answered. is whether or not this story is unfolding in Christopher's imagination. It's the basic mechanic upon which the movie hinges. The movie presents Pooh as real, but if that's the case why don't all kids have real stuffed animals? Why is Christopher's wife so surprised to see Pooh? If they are real only in Christopher's scenario, why? I'm content for it just to be magic. We could see Pooh, in a box stuck in an attic just come to life. Pooh came to life because Christopher needed him, but the only conclusions I can draw from the movie is that Pooh has always been real. I'm assuming with the number of writers, there are more than a few unfinished plot point.

An overworked father that sees the light is far from a new idea. How this movie resolves it could have been nice if given any kind of explanation. Instead this movie uses nostalgia to wallpaper over it.