Saving Mr Banks (PG)
Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell
IN true Disney style, a woman is transformed into her ‘true self’ in Saving Mr Banks.
Saving Mr Banks follows Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) as she travels to Los Angeles to meet with filmmaker Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) during the adaption of the novel into a film.
The present day, being 1961, is interspersed with childhood memories of Ginty/P.L.Travers living in rural Australia in 1906.
It is very hard for the first half of the film to find any link between the happy-go-lucky child Ginty, played brilliantly by Annie Rose Buckley, and the uptight and OCD P.L.Travers – let alone how she created the much-loved Mary Poppins as an adult.
However as her flashbacks become more regular, links appear – particularly with Ginty’s fun-loving but alcoholic father Travers Goff (Colin Farrell) and the appearance of Aunt Ellie (Rachel Griffiths).
It is hard to tear yours eyes away as the connections develop and to find out how the enthusiastic Disney wins her over – in the end it is not the countless stuffed toys of Disney characters.
P.L.Travers is an unlikely heroine and is vicious in her desire to ‘save’ her nanny from being taken over by what she feels is, the fluff of the Disney studios.
Her uncompromising refusal to change any aspects of her book, including disliking the colour red and not wanting it in the film ‘at all’, fills the middle of the film and honestly, left me wondering if the Disney fun and laughter would appear.
But it is a Disney film after all and everything turns out in the end.The personality of P.L.Travers, and superb acting of Emma Thompson, is perfectly balanced with the gaiety of Disney and particularly the talented Sherman brother (BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman) who bring fun and laughter into the film with the tunes now synonymous with the Mary Poppins movie.
By the end of the two hours, Disney will have coaxed a smile out of the most reluctant audience members – and P.L.Travers herself.
– Nicole Williams
