Saving
Mr. Banks
Based on the true story, Emma Thompson stars as P.L. Travers
– the creator and author of Mary Poppins. It’s 1961
and Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) has spent 20 years trying to convince
Travers to let him make the movie version of her popular, endearing
books. However, that seems like a fate worse than death to the author,
who doesn’t want to see Mary Poppins Disneyfied beyond
recognition.
Now that she is facing some financial difficulties, Travers is making
the trip to Hollywood to discuss the movie, but there’s a
catch. She hasn’t signed the final paperwork, and
won’t until she gets approval over the script, casting, music
and, well, everything (she doesn’t like that Dick Van Dyke
guy). Winning her over is the task Walt Disney is taking on with gusto,
and might live to regret.
Get ready for a movie about the magic, heartbreak and frustration of
making a movie, along with some of the best acting performances of the
year because Saving Mr. Banks
is one of those special films that fires up your love of movies and
storytelling.
Most of the big buzz about Saving
Mr. Banks has been the
performance of Hanks as Disney (and we’ll get to that), but Saving
Mr. Banks fails if Thompson
isn’t brilliant. And, as we know, she is brilliant.
Thompson makes Travers a prickly soul who is partly overbearing, and
partly understandable as we see the reasons why she is so protective of
Mary Poppins. It’s not easy to get laughs and empathy from
being a tough as nails, pushy person who demands greatness and shows a
willingness to debate every facet of every detail, but Thompson
delivers.
Some will say those great moments are the ones where Thompson shows us
Travers letting her guard down or as we watch years of pain melt away
as she slightly warms to the whole project, but I think her greatest
moments are the ones where she’s tough as nails.
It’s a lovable ferocity to protect something of great
importance. It matters, so she will defend it.
Then, we have the surprise performance by Colin Farrell, who is
magnificent as Travers’ father. If you have followed his
career, Farrell has shown ability, so that’s not the
surprise. The surprise is that he is the anchor of the storyline that
could easily be the big stinker in Saving
Mr. Banks.
Farrell stuns as the lovable rogue spiraling out of control, and he
makes the man into a complicated, beautiful soul who needs to get his
life together, but has such a deep love of his daughter that you root
for this guy to be better. He gives the father a rosy outlook covering
over a tangible air of sadness that grows as Saving Mr. Banks moves
towards the big revelations about this family.
Yes, Hanks is wonderful as Disney with the typical and expected
gladhanding, boisterous personality and displaying abilities to be the
perfectly salesman with the big pitch, but he also brings a warmth and
humanity to the legend in the many times Disney must explain to Travers
why he wants to make this movie and what they share together.
It’s the perfect Hanks performance that finds that one moment
where you are just blown away and keep talking about it for years.
Even the smaller roles are filled by actors who amaze including Paul
Giamatti as the driver who always tries to cheer up Travers with his
defense mechanisms as she unloads negativity and anger at him. Giamatti
shows us the guy knows he isn’t all that powerful in this
world, but he makes the most out of it as he works for a company he
likes and has a good reason to get up and go to work each day. He has
great chemistry with Thompson, and you could almost make an entire
movie out that relationship. Maybe Saving
Mr. Banks 2? No, that would
be a bad idea.
Long time fans of Mary Poppins will be amazed and amused by the
development of the script and songs, some of the trivia behind it all
and Travers’s reactions to some of the most beloved memories
we all have of the movie, and that’s what makes it special.
Make sure you stick around through the credits. You get to see and hear
a little bit of the real story.
Saving
Mr. Banks is rated PG-13 for thematic elements including some
unsettling images.
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