Netflix has just unleashed the family drama no one saw coming—a gut-wrenching holiday tale that starts with twinkling lights and eggnog toasts but spirals into a whirlwind of raw chaos when a mother’s sudden health collapse rips through her four children and their difficult father, unraveling long-buried secrets that shatter the festive facade. Goodbye June, Kate Winslet’s fearless directorial debut written by her son Joe Anders, premiered on December 1, 2025, and has skyrocketed to No. 1 in the U.S. Top 10 Movies, amassing over 45 million hours viewed in its first week. Starring the legendary Helen Mirren as the ailing matriarch June alongside Downton Abbey‘s Jeremy Swift as her stoic but flawed husband, this isn’t your typical holiday movie—it’s a devastating, emotional rollercoaster that fans are calling “unmissable” and “almost too painful to watch,” with a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score praising its “brave, unflinching portrayal of loss amid the tinsel.”
Directed by Winslet in her first feature-length outing since her 2021 short Plunge, Goodbye June unfolds over a single Christmas weekend at the family’s snow-dusted New England estate, where June’s collapse during a family toast forces her adult children—scattered by life and grudges—to confront the fractures they’ve long ignored. Winslet’s script, co-written with Anders drawing from their own family dynamics, weaves holiday cheer with creeping dread: a turkey dinner laced with passive-aggressive barbs, a midnight snowball fight that devolves into confessions, and a final act reckoning that peels back decades of resentment. Mirren is transcendent as June, her sharp wit masking a lifetime of sacrifices, while Swift’s patriarch—gruff, unyielding, yet achingly vulnerable—anchors the emotional core. The ensemble shines: Winslet as the eldest daughter harboring a secret addiction, The Crown‘s Erin Doherty as the free-spirited rebel, Succession‘s Brian Cox as the estranged brother, and newcomer Lila Crawford as the wide-eyed teen granddaughter who sees through the facades.
What elevates Goodbye June beyond seasonal sentimentality is Winslet’s unsparing gaze: no tidy resolutions, just the messy beauty of flawed love amid mortality. The camera lingers on Mirren’s trembling hands during a piano recital, Swift’s silent tears in the garage, and Doherty’s breakdown by the Christmas tree, turning holiday tropes into mirrors of our own regrets. “It’s about the stories we tell to survive—and the ones we can’t,” Winslet told Variety, crediting Anders for infusing “personal truths” into the script. The score, a haunting mix of carols and dissonant strings by Alexandre Desplat, underscores the film’s ache, while cinematographer Greig Fraser (Dune) bathes the estate in golden twilight that feels both inviting and inexorable.
Critics are raving: The New York Times called it “a holiday gut-punch that heals as it hurts,” while The Guardian praised “Mirren and Swift’s masterclass in restrained devastation.” Viewers are equally gripped: “Paused three times to breathe—devastating but beautiful” (@FilmFeels, 60k likes). With 2025’s holiday slate bloated by sequels, Goodbye June is the antidote: a tearjerker that reminds us family isn’t perfect—it’s persistent.
Stream Goodbye June now on Netflix. Get the tissues ready; this one’s for the heart.
