Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson
Director: John Lee Hancock
Rating: 4/5
Mary Poppins is one of the most famous and most enduring of Disney's movies: however, few people know that it took Walt Disney twenty years to convince author P.L. Travers to let him adapt her novel for the big screen.
Saving Mr. Banks sees John Lee Hancock return to the director's chair, while Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks star as Travers and Disney in this funny and very touching film.
When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favourite book, P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins, he made them a promise - one that he didn’t realize would take 20 years to keep.
But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.
For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge.
He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.
Emma Thompson is a triumph in the role of P.L. Travers: an author that is fiercely protective of the character that she created. This is a woman who will not bow to the Hollywood machine that is Disney: Thompson gets her stubbornness and her steely will down to a fine art.
In less-experienced hands, Travers could be seen as a rather cold character, and yet Thompson has depicted her as a woman who stands by what she believes in.
However, as the story unfolds we see that Travers is a woman who is haunted by her past, and we begin to understand why she holds on so tightly to this character and this story.
Tom Hanks is equally fantastic as Walt Disney: a man who is not used to dealing with someone like Travers.
Some of the film's best scenes are when Thompson and Hanks come face to face: they really are two actors who are at the top of their game and have been given roles to really sink their teeth into.
While there are some hugely funny moments - mainly from Thompson as her character shows her distaste for just about everything - this movie really is underpinned by a melancholy and a sadness.
That sadness comes from Travers' childhood in Australia and the early death of her father (Colin Farrell). While he was a loving parent, his battle with alcohol made their home life difficult.
Director John Lee Hancock should be applauded for balancing perfectly the many aspects to this movie. This so easily could have felt like two different films, but he manages to make the present and the past flow beautifully together.
Saving Mr. Banks is a powerful and emotional story, and yet it a film of real joy. We are taken on a very personal journey of an author, which allows us to get a better understanding of the story of Mary Poppins.
All that is brought to life by fantastic performances from a talented cast - Thompson, in particular, just shines.
Saving Mr Banks is out now.
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