Goodbye June review: New Netflix movie is a near flawless directorial debut for Kate Winslet — but you’ll cry your eyes out

11 Dec 2025, 17:00 · TechRadar

TechRadar Verdict

Goodbye June sucker-punched me in the feels, and I'm still wiping away the tears. If you're really looking for faults, you can find some, but the movie’s feelings of hope and startlingly accurate grief left me with more than compensate for any minor gripes.

Pros

+Kate Winslet is a natural director
+Faultless performances
+Incredible script for a 21-year-old
+Really shrewd casting (Toni Colette is genius)
+One of the most accurate portrayals of family grief I've seen
+Perfectly captures classic British family dynamics

Cons

-Has ‘the Netflix look’
-Tension drops slightly two-thirds of the way in

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Is Goodbye June a Christmas movie, or a movie that simply has Christmas in it? I'm not sure – but what I do know is that you won't stream a more tragically beautiful film this festive season.

It's quite a choice to drop a film that follows a dying woman's last days on Christmas Eve, but I can see why Netflix made the decision. If anything, the timing drives home the importance of hugging your loved ones that bit tighter, and never missing the chance to tell someone you love them.

In a nutshell, mom and grandmother June's (Helen Mirren) cancer has spread, sending her to hospital for what she and her family know will be the last few days of her life. Doting son Connor (Johnny Flynn) and his sisters, highly-strung Julia (Kate Winslet, who also makes her directorial debut), internally angry Molly (Andrea Riseborough) and flighty expat Helen (Toni Colette) spend as much time as they can by their mothers' bedside.

Along with June's ailing husband Bernie (Timothy Spall), the quartet's job is to give June the best send-off possible, despite a myriad of issues and long-held grudges making emotions run even higher than you’d expect in such a scenario.

Reading those last two paragraphs may well have put you in mind of your own family, whether it’s particular people or a similar situation – and that's one of the great strengths of Goodbye June. Our cast might be A-list, but here they're grounded, and their relatability helps to deliver what at times feels more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a drama.

The movie is something of a family affair off-screen as well as on, and some more cynical critics might be tempted to brand it as a ‘nepo baby’ creation (Winslet stars and directs and her son Joe Anders writes the script). I actually think their family ties are a huge advantage here... and thank God Winslet is now trying her (very successful) hand at directing.

Watching Goodbye June is like looking into my own past – and you might feel that way too

Goodbye June | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube

Watch On

One of the biggest compliments you can give an actor is that they fully inhabit a role they take on. We’re not watching Helen Mirren play a dying grandmother here, we’re watching June dying.

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