Wednesday, August 8, 2018

"Christopher Robin"

  

In the view of Hollywood, having a job and being a grown-up seem to be about the worst sins any adult could commit, and the only thing that can save a responsible adult from his (or, to a lesser extent, her) callous ways is a magical creature.

Think of it: Poor Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins, such a mean old grown-up, completely devoid of childlike innocence.  Poor Peter Banning in Hook, so grumpy and embittered, and so unlike his childish self.  Dorothy in Return to Oz didn't even get to grow up: She was a lost case mere months after returning from her first visit to the land over the rainbow.

And now here's poor Christopher Robin, who has lost all ability to have a heart; according to his wife, he can't even laugh. Would you? Since going away to boarding school, he has not only left behind the Hundred Acre Wood, but gotten married, seen horrific violence in World War II, and come back to take a soul-sucking job at a luggage manufacturer.  Life couldn't be much worse for the grown-up Christopher Robin.

Meanwhile, the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood think of him -- and miss him -- every single day.  They kind of have a point, since the whole of the populace in the wood seems to be Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo. Even for them, life's gotta be a little dull.

The Hundred Acre Wood may or may not be a real place, but its residents certainly are real, according to the odd mythology of Disney's Christopher Robin. The Wood is accessible only through a magic doorway, and when Winnie the Pooh himself (the voice of Jim Cummings) walks the other way through the portal, he winds up in London, just outside the home of grown up Christopher (Ewan McGregor). A strange thing has happened: Pooh seems to have lost his friends, who have ominously gone missing on a gray, foggy day.

Pooh and Christopher Robin meet at the worst possible time for Christopher -- he's got extra work to do on a weekend, and is neglecting his wife and daughter for the sake of bringing home a salary. Gasp! What a selfish, ugly, grown-up thing to do! Pooh, meanwhile, remains a bear of very little brain, and spends an evening in Christopher Robin's home being clumsy and messy in a sweeter, more innocent version of Paddington Bear's first night in the home of the Browns in the original Paddington. Sometimes, Christopher Robin seems to be the movie for people who found Paddington a little too raucous and cheeky.

Christopher Robin is filled with simple delights, and its only real problem is how simple some of those delights are. Pooh is adorable and speaks in the wisdom of greeting cards.  He lives a life utterly devoid of complexity, and when Christopher Robin inevitably returns to the Hundred Acre Wood, he and his friends think they hear the dreaded Huffalumps and Woozles, leading to a simple and sweet explanation of how these storied creatures are not much more than manifestations of a child's fear of the unknown life of adults.

A sweet-natured and simple little mix-up happens when Christopher Robin returns to the Wood, one involving very important papers that Christopher Robin needs for a meeting in the ugly, awful real world. Pooh and his friends make a journey into London to return the papers to their human friend.  Once there, other people can see and hear them, which is one of the more unexpected but odd little touches in Christopher Robin: We're so used to stories in which the mystical critters can't be seen by "real people," but that's not the case here.

It's a shame, then, that it doesn't lead to a better, deeper story.  The long-in-gestation script for Christopher Robin is simplistic to a fault; Pooh and friends never really experience what London is like, they get no sense of the real world -- and the real world doesn't get to experience their simplicity. Everything is kept neatly confined to the story of Christopher Robin and how his childhood friends will teach him a lesson about what's really important in life. (Hint: It involves family, even at the expense of a job.)

Christopher Robin misses a bet in not exposing Pooh and Friends to the Real World, and having the Real World react not with cynicism and fear but instead with wonder and delight.  Christopher Robin could have brought some of the same sensibility of (yes, really) The Brady Bunch movie to the simplistic creations of A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepherd, but it wants to remain firmly in fairy-tale mode.

That lack of depth ultimately does harm Christopher Robin a bit, since the movie takes such pains to show us how young Master Christopher became slightly embittered Mr. Robin, and shows us some of the horrors of the world.  The Hundred Acre Wood could have served as a balm to the horrors of reality, but instead it is as it always was: an adorable place to spend 90 minutes.

There is nothing at all wrong with Christopher Robin.  It's a visual delight, a sweet and good-natured return to a simple place.  It's got a perfect voice cast, a wonderful human cast, and some astonishing visual effects, all working in service of a simple, delightful little story -- with emphasis on "little." It could have been a grand adventure, and instead it's a joyous little romp. Silly old bear.




Viewed Aug. 8, 2018 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks

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