Movie of the Week: Saving Mr Banks
Dec. 5th, 2013 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyH and I went to see this on a whim. It's Wenesday. Twofers day. We usually see every SF movie we can, but this week we'd not much to choose from as we've already seen Catching Fire etc. So it was a toss-up between The Family and Saving Mr Banks. I'm so pleased we picked Mr Banks.
On the surface it's the story of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) persuaded PL Travers (Emma Thompson) to sell him the film rights to Mary Poppins, but beneath that lies the story of Travers' own childhood in Australia and her relationship with her charismatic but troubled father, played brilliantly by Colin Farrell.
The story flips back and forth between 1906 and 1963. I've seen some reviews that suggested this was a mistake, but for me it was the whole point of the movie and yes I admit that I had to quietly wipe away more than one tear. As both PL Travers and Disney point out, Mary Poppins purpose in the book is not to save the Banks children, but to redeem their father. (That's not a spoiler, it's in the trailer!)
It's an intelligent script. Emma Thompson is brilliant as the tetchy, author determined that Hollywood will not have her star character despite her agent's cajoling as her money runs out. Tom Hanks gives a nuanced performance as Disney. I shouldn't be surprised by this as he's done some brilliant work in the last few years, not least in Cloud Atlas. There are plentry of excuses for snatches of the sings from Mary Poppins, some genuine feelgood moments and appropriate catharsis at the end.
Highly recommended, even if it doesn't look like the sort of movie you'd usually go and see.
On the surface it's the story of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) persuaded PL Travers (Emma Thompson) to sell him the film rights to Mary Poppins, but beneath that lies the story of Travers' own childhood in Australia and her relationship with her charismatic but troubled father, played brilliantly by Colin Farrell.
The story flips back and forth between 1906 and 1963. I've seen some reviews that suggested this was a mistake, but for me it was the whole point of the movie and yes I admit that I had to quietly wipe away more than one tear. As both PL Travers and Disney point out, Mary Poppins purpose in the book is not to save the Banks children, but to redeem their father. (That's not a spoiler, it's in the trailer!)
It's an intelligent script. Emma Thompson is brilliant as the tetchy, author determined that Hollywood will not have her star character despite her agent's cajoling as her money runs out. Tom Hanks gives a nuanced performance as Disney. I shouldn't be surprised by this as he's done some brilliant work in the last few years, not least in Cloud Atlas. There are plentry of excuses for snatches of the sings from Mary Poppins, some genuine feelgood moments and appropriate catharsis at the end.
Highly recommended, even if it doesn't look like the sort of movie you'd usually go and see.
