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    Saving Mr. Banks

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    Saving Mr. Banks (2013) Rating: 4/5 I’m still not sure if it’s better to watch “Mary Poppins” before or after “Saving Mr. Banks” but either way, this 2013 film about the making of the Walt Disney musical is very charming and touching at times. The film is set in 1961. Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) is flat-out broke and is convinced by her agent to travel to Los Angeles to meet Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), in order to discuss the acquisition of the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories. Travers is thoroughly against the idea but figures if she makes an effort to come over and they don’t meet her demands, she’ll finally have the “goofy cartoonist” off her back. When Travers meets with Disney, their personalities couldn’t be more different and they have a hard time agreeing on anything. It becomes clear with her extravagant demands and her refusal to cooperate with the creative team assigned to develop the film (Bradley Whitford as Don DaGradi, Jason Schwartzman and B. J. Novak as Richard and Robert Sherman) that there’s a lot more to her than just a stubborn writer unwilling to let go of her work. Through flashbacks to Travers’ childhood, we learn what inspired the Mary Poppins character and why it is that she is so reluctant to budge on changes to her stories. When I saw the film, I made an effort to watch it as a double feature. First, I busted out my Dvd of Mary Poppins (not having picked up the newly released Blu-ray yet) and watched the film at home and, knowing how the efforts portrayed in “Saving Mr. Banks” turned into such a wonderful musical, I found myself infuriated. How could Travers not listen to the wonderful songs being composed by the Shermans and not fall in love with them as I did? How could she stand in the way of these artists, stomping on every effort made to bring life to the character and dismiss their casting of Dick Van Dyke as Burt or the choice of lyrics in the songs? I found myself really engaged, wondering how the people at Walt Disney studios were going to figure out a way to make this crazy woman understand that what they were working on was going to be wonderful. As the story developed, I found my opinion of the author changing. Witnessing the tragic upbringing of the author and listening to the excellent performance by Emma Thompson, I really came to sympathize with her and my anger melted away until I just wanted her to be comforted and happy in the end. My love for the Mary Poppins film actually added some tension to the ending. I was praying that the author would appreciate the film and not hate it as so many authors have (Take Roald Dahl, who hated “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”) I’m not going to say what her reaction is, but I thought it was perfect. I also have to applaud the casting of Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. During the end credits of the film (which you should stick around and watch) you get to see some archival photos of the man and the likeness isn’t great but that doesn’t matter. Tom Hanks has so much natural charm that you believed him to be the man who never let go of his childhood spirit and brought us some of the greatest films in history. There are a lot of good, funny moments as Disney and Travers confront each other. Even though I knew what the ending would be ultimately, I still found myself with eyes glued to the screen, hoping that I would be right. I’ve just been talking about the portion of the film that focus on Travers as an adult, but the flashbacks to her childhood were very interesting as well. Here, you don’t really know where the film is going and the film leans a lot more towards the drama than the “present” sequences, which do have some good moments of comedy. There are some scenes that are downright shocking and you’ll admire the author for even finding a way to make it through the ordeals she was faced with. To help make these moments convincing we’ve got some solid performances from Annie Rose Buckley as a young Travers and Colin Farrell as her dreamer of a father who suffers from some serious problems. Towards the end of the movie there are some really harsh revelations before the whole truth is revealed to the audience and to Walt Disney, who comes to consider her a friend. This is also where the movie stumbles a bit. The premise of the film sounds like it could easily be a very light docudrama with good intentions but very little bit or memorable moments and once in a while, you can see that film crop up here and there. Most of the film is not trying to be cute or overly melodramatic and does make an effort to show a story that at least feels grounded in reality but it’s still worth noting. I like to think of this as more of a really good companion piece to “Mary Poppins” than its own solid movie but even if you only vaguely remember the musical from your childhood, it will be enough. The solid performances, particularly of Emma Thompson and of Tom Hanks really make this worth your time and the supporting roles, which include Paul Giamatti as a sympathetic limo driver seal the deal. It’s a family film for slightly older families that has just enough drama and comedy to satisfy everyone, I say check it out and if you have “Mary Poppins” at home, rush out to see it right away, then come back and have yourself a double feature. (Theatrical version on the big screen, December 29, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  6.1.2014 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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