Kate Winslet is due a very thoughtful Christmas gift this year. The veteran actor made a pretty extraordinary maternal gesture, directing, producing and starring in a film her son, Joe Anders, wrote, "Goodbye June," which is in limited release this weekend and streaming on Netflix Dec. 24.

While it might be worth pointing out that the script originated in a screenwriting class, there will be no nepo baby jokes here. Put alongside most of the Christmas offerings on Netflix, which seem to veer more toward the secret princess/fantasy/romance side of things, and aren't even attempting to be, well, very good, "Goodbye June" is an admirably solid, if generic, drama about family and death with a very distinguished cast.

Terminal illness, estranged adult siblings and hospital rooms are certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea around the holidays, but you probably already know by this point whether this is an experience you want to sign up for. It remains a mystery why so many holiday movies feel the need to include a dying mother. Perhaps it's because, from an emotional standpoint, it rarely misses.

Unlike, say "The Family Stone" however, "Goodbye June" actually places the audience in that most unpleasant of settings: The hospital. It begins with a nightmare scenario, with the elderly mother, June ( Helen Mirren ) collapsing as the kettle cries out on the stove. Her grown son Connor (Johnny Flynn) finds her, collects his father Bernie (Timothy Spall), and they race off to the hospital, forgetting to turn off the tap in the sink before they leave. "Goodbye June" has an eye for the mundane details that make up everyday life that all seem so small in the face of loss.

Soon, they're greeted by the rest of June and Bernie's daughters, Julia... Read More