by Cookie N Screen
(Spoilers!)
What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force? What happens when two determined and head strong creative minds battle over a character? What happens when history and past combine to make one headstrong woman? What happens when you make a movie with two of the greatest actors of all time?
Saving Mr Banks happens.
(Spoilers!)
What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force? What happens when two determined and head strong creative minds battle over a character? What happens when history and past combine to make one headstrong woman? What happens when you make a movie with two of the greatest actors of all time?
Saving Mr Banks happens.
Based on a true(ish) story, Saving Mr Banks is about the making of Mary Poppins. After twenty years of trying to gain the rights, P.L. Travers, the author of the original books, is forced to meet with Disney to arrange some sort of deal. Her stipulation is that she has final say over everything in the film. Unfortunately for the team behind Mary Poppins, Travers doesn’t like anything, detests the music and abhors cartoons. It is up to the determination of Walt Disney to get Travers to completely sign over the rights. However, there is a deeper story to Mary Poppins and it is hidden in the unravelling past inside her.
Saving Mr Banks is a perfectly acceptable movie. It is rather enjoyable, managing to balance the comedy and the drama really well. Each aspect of the movie runs smoothly, from the impressive turn from Colin Farrell as Travers father and a troubled past in Australia to the present, and her dealings with the “vulgar” world of Disney. It all comes together quite well. Emma Thompson is on fire as Travers and puts on a spellbinding performance as a woman torn between sides of her as well as the fierce protection. Rather than making her the villain, John Lee Hancock here actually makes her understandably annoyed. She created a whole world that she loved and that mother-like fight for it is portrayed exceedingly with Thompson.
Saving Mr Banks is a perfectly acceptable movie. It is rather enjoyable, managing to balance the comedy and the drama really well. Each aspect of the movie runs smoothly, from the impressive turn from Colin Farrell as Travers father and a troubled past in Australia to the present, and her dealings with the “vulgar” world of Disney. It all comes together quite well. Emma Thompson is on fire as Travers and puts on a spellbinding performance as a woman torn between sides of her as well as the fierce protection. Rather than making her the villain, John Lee Hancock here actually makes her understandably annoyed. She created a whole world that she loved and that mother-like fight for it is portrayed exceedingly with Thompson.
It is also interesting that Walt Disney isn’t the famed hero here and Tom Hanks, as brilliant as he is, makes him seem so obnoxious. The shrewd businessman wants the film exactly how he likes is almost unbearable. Hanks is great here, and while Disney paved the world of imagination and magic, it needs to be seen that at times, he was an overgrown child demanding something he couldn’t have. While there is a relationship between Thompson and Hanks, the biggest draw is the blossoming friendship Travers has with her driver Ralph and the underappreciated Paul Giamatti completes that role.
The problem here is the ending. While it is great to see the creative minds battle between joyful and strict, the ending feels like Disney are giving themselves a slap on the back. Because they play fast and loose with Travers' reaction to the final product. It almost seems as though she enjoyed the film whereas it is publicly known that she didn’t. She hated it, slated it and author still remained in dispute with the studio ever since. Here, in Saving Mr Banks, the reaction isn’t that. It is frustrating because while the film dabbled in the good and excellent is cheapened by it.
Mary Poppins is a much beloved movie and no one is going to take anything from that. Saving Mr Banks is just a story about a woman who created characters as family due to the worrisome past she had lived. It is, at most times, a fantastic film that, even though it runs on too long and the final scene shouldn’t have happened, Saving Mr Banks will warm people up this winter month.
3.5/5
TTFN
Cookie
The problem here is the ending. While it is great to see the creative minds battle between joyful and strict, the ending feels like Disney are giving themselves a slap on the back. Because they play fast and loose with Travers' reaction to the final product. It almost seems as though she enjoyed the film whereas it is publicly known that she didn’t. She hated it, slated it and author still remained in dispute with the studio ever since. Here, in Saving Mr Banks, the reaction isn’t that. It is frustrating because while the film dabbled in the good and excellent is cheapened by it.
Mary Poppins is a much beloved movie and no one is going to take anything from that. Saving Mr Banks is just a story about a woman who created characters as family due to the worrisome past she had lived. It is, at most times, a fantastic film that, even though it runs on too long and the final scene shouldn’t have happened, Saving Mr Banks will warm people up this winter month.
3.5/5
TTFN
Cookie
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