Saving Mr. Banks

Tonight's new movie is Saving Mr. Banks, a "making of" movie about the making of Mary Poppins. I admit to expecting something fairly saccarine, between the subject matter and the fact that it was made by Disney itself. As it turns out the story is fairly dark. It seems that Walt Disney spent 20 years trying to convince PL Travers (Mary Poppins author) to sell him the rights to do the movie. Travers is a hard-to-like, misanthropic, sarcastic and apparently unhappy person with an awful childhood story about her incompetent, alcoholic, consumptive, dying father in the wilds of 1910 Australia. The source of the Mary Poppins character is a nannie brought into her home to deal with the situation. In the movie, Walt flies her to California and does the full court press, bringing her reluctantly into the production. Common knowledge informs us that the movie did get made and was a huge hit, but it was not easy getting Travers to consent and she was not really pleased with the movie.

Tom Hanks does a reasonably decent portrayal of Walt (he insisted on first names only), but most of the weight of drama is carried by PL Travers (played excellently by Emma Thompson), who insists on last names and formal titles and is a stickler for proper English manners, afternoon tea (with a spoonful of sugar) and who is horrified by the tackiness of Disneyland. Paul Giamatti is quite good as the limo driver who is assigned to drive her around and becomes the only person who actually befriends her without an agenda. I was surprised that something this painful and traumatic came directly from Disney. One guy in front of us in the theater came with two young kids and the questions to dad were like "why is that drunk man coughing up blood and crying...is he going to die?"...not the usual Disney fare.

Watched the flick the other night. Seems most critics are split on whether Disney made it for them to look good or not. I personally thought it was a pretty good movie. Doing research on the real reaction to the movie by P.L Travers might paint a different view of the movie or might not for you. It's purely how you take it in I suppose. I thought it was pretty fair with a few liberates taken but hey it's suppose to entertain and move you.

Hanks is just about the perfect Walt Disney and Thompson is excellent as Travers. Well acted all around. Plus my boy Jason Schwartzman was awesome as a naively optimistic song writer. Really hope he gets a lead role soon!

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I came here to do two things, drink some beer and kick some ass, looks like we are almost outta beer - Dazed and Confused

101 Favorite Movies (2019)

Really enjoyed your review...DYING to see this movie.

I was not enthusiastic when I saw the trailer, which seemed to be mainly witty comments and Disney sweetness, but the movie ended up being more than I expected, but also surprising. The rather gritty story about Travers' childhood, like giving booze to her dying father just wasn't what I expected to see in a Disney-branded movie. It was more of an adult film. It wasn't a subsidiary, but it had Tinkerbell and the castle and I actually had the impression that it misled some of the people who came to the theater with young kids (like 5 or 5 years old).

I really enjoyed this film.

Emma Thompson was incredible!

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

I cant wait to see this film. Thanks for the awesome review.

Saving Mr Banks - my review

"But it's not as good as the book..." is probably the single most boring observation anyone can ever make about a film. Some people just don't get this. Emma Thompson is a legend and Mary Poppins is one of the greatest films ever made. No argument. Her portrayal of the complex, fussy and cantankerous P.L.Travers is a joy to behold and Tom Hanks provides just the right amount of determined, immovable charm to make his version of Walt Disney work so well with her. We know the real-life outcome. Mary Poppins was made in all its schmaltzy glory and P.L.Travers (who was in it for the money, bless her) never liked the film. But who cares? This is history as it ought to be told. Mr Disney, I salute you. 10/10

8/10

This is one of those cases where the title perfectly fits the film strange as it may seem or sound. The title also could have been “creating an old cranky woman.” For most of the film, Emma Thompson plays a cantankerous and disagreeable character; author PL Travers the creator of Mary Poppins. Throughout the film, we come to understand through flashbacks how she became what she is today. During this journey a connection is made with the viewer and that is NOT an easy thing to pull off. It’s worth mentioning that Colin Farrell delivers a flat out superb performance as her father in these flashbacks. Tom Hanks is also perfect in his role as Walt Disney. In recent years, I’ve lost a lot of respect for Hanks but this was good old fashion Tom Hanks in his prime. His final passionate speech has to be his best work since Cast Away.

The film itself is very well crafted. I’ve never seen all of the Mary Poppins movie from start to finish yet I saw this film and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Have you seen Captain Phillips? Some also enjoyed Cloud Atlas a lot, although, I am not one of them.