(Credits: Netflix)

You do not see Kate Winslet step behind the camera every day, so when she does, the moment feels extremely important. Yes, people, our Rose is finally a filmmaker, and she is debuting as a director for the Netflix film Goodbye June.

This film is not just another casual drama, which might be intended to serve the holidays. It is the project that convinced Winslet to finally step into the director’s chair, and the trailer already points towards a story that hits close to home for anyone who has ever sat inside a messy yet loving and cute yet complicated family.

Goodbye. June follows four adult siblings who return home when their mother, June, begins slipping away due to a serious illness. Sounds simple enough, right? Oh, but you might want to give it another look because the emotional temperature of this family is anything but. As all of them meet after a long time, you observe old resentments also making their way around the dining table, accompanied by unspoken guilt, and every sibling arrives carrying stories they never learnt to say out loud.

The only fix to this messed-up narrative is June herself, played by Helen Mirren, with her evergreen, beautiful presence that makes you want to pause everything and watch. She is so vibran,t even though she is declining as she pokes fun at her children. June is also not shy when it comes to giving blunt truths, and she still loves her children the way she did when they were young.

What’s something to pay attention to in Goodbye June? The contrast. You see June’s declining health, and even though the loss is closer than expected, life is still bursting through the edges. That’s what gives the film its heartbeat.

Coming to Kate Winslet, she has done a double duty here. She is not just directing but also playing one of the siblings. She also handpicked the cast, and it already looks like a family. Starting with the eldest daughter, you have the brilliant Toni Collette. She is followed by Andrea Riseborough as the overwhelmed stay-at-home mother and Johnny Flynn as the youngest misfit who never truly left the nest. The chemistry between them is immediate in the trailer.

What makes Winslet’s move into directing even more interesting is how personal her connection to the story feels. She has said the script spoke to her on a human level. The way families love, fail, forgive, and circle back when it matters is all very human.

The film leans into the uncomfortable truth that the people we love most can confuse us, frustrate us, and still be our anchor when the world feels like it is falling apart.

Goodbye June arrives in select US and UK theatres on December 12th and hits Netflix on December 24th. A story about family, loss, laughter, and last goodbyes, releasing right as families gather around their own living rooms.