The newest cinematic journey into the 100-acre wood is made with as much affection and love for the source material as is felt by the millions of children who read Winnie the Pooh stories the world over.

But while these stories were created at a time where the country’s need for magic and happiness was great, the backdrop to their creation is a far less joyful affair, as shown in Simon Curtis’ Goodbye Christopher Robin.

The story opens with an ageing A.A Milne, played with the quintessentially British ‘stiff upper lip’ mentality of the 20th century by Domhnall Gleeson, and his wife, Daphne, played by Margot Robbie, who is found tending to gardens at their idyllic Sussex home. However they are about to receive the telegram every parent feared in 1940s England about their son, young Christopher Robin, who has been sent to the trenches to fight.

We then cut back to the First World War, where a slightly younger A.A Milne is suffering, along with his illustrator E.H Shepherd, from post traumatic stress disorder after fighting in what they truly believed was 'the war to end all wars', and is forced to reenter London society with his wife, who truly is the epitome of the stoicism. Daphne has a child in the hope to make her husband happy again, but soon the city noise and pollution is too much and they leave to find quiet and solace in the countryside of Sussex.

It is here where Milne’s creative juices begin to flow while watching his son, Christopher Robin, who they call Billy Moon, playing with his stuffed animal friends in the woods. His son becomes the basis for his books, the now world-famous Winnie the Pooh series, but the family is still tested as the effects of fame and fortune for a young boy begin to fracture an already strained dynamic.

The cinematography from Ben Smithard is exquisite: the first shot of light coming through the trees immediately sends you to your 'happy place', and the warm tones of the film are incredibly well used in creating an ethereal, magical setting where these books began.

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However while the script and story are utterly moving, the stiffness of the lead adult characters breaks the spell at times and makes them difficult to sympathise with, especially in the case of Robbie’s Daphne, who is mostly portrayed as inherently self-centred. This can create a barrier between the audience diving head-first into the story, as the characters we are following keep us at arm’s length.

But the real heart of the film is in the title character; in the love Christopher Robin exudes and gives to his parents despite their aloofness, and his nanny, Noo, played by a perfectly charming Kelly MacDonald. Will Tilston’s young Christopher Robin is exactly how one might picture him when reading the books, while the slightly older Christopher Robin, played by The Imitation Game’s Alex Lawther, is hardened by constant bullying and unwanted fame. His exchange with his father at the train station before heading off to fight is heart-wrenching to say the least.

I shed a tear in this film, as the realities of childhood fame grew in impact, but unfortunately the stoic nature of the two adult leads to made the film slightly colder than it should have been at times, especially in contrast to the warmth from the setting and Christopher Robin.

But for a fan of the Winnie the Pooh books, this will shed a new light upon its origins which make those novels even more poignant as a joyous gift to a war-torn nation.