Review: Saving Mr. Banks

                                       

                              
                                          Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, This Film Is
                        
                       When I was younger, one of the few Disney films I wouldn't say was a huge favorite of mine was Mary Poppins. However, when I heard that there was a movie that would depict the making of Mary Poppins and would have Tom Hanks play Walt Disney, I was pretty interested. Then I saw the trailer and my hopes up got even higher. When I finally saw the film, I thought that we were given another marvelous picture that is a movie about movies.

                        Story:
                      Saving Mr. Banks is about the author of Mary Poppins named P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) who flies to L.A., where Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) fights to buy the rights to Mary Poppins so he can fulfill his promise to his daughters that he would turn Mary Poppins into a film. As the making of Mary Poppins progresses, Travers then tries to come to terms with her difficult childhood.

                      What I Liked About It:
                    One thing that I really liked was the performance by Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers. Thompson is not only neurotic and even heartbreaking, but she also adds some mild comic relief as well. Tom Hanks also does quite a fine job as Walt Disney and is equally as amazing as Emma Thompson is. But another actor I also really liked was Colin Farrell, who plays Travers' father, who is very loving but struggles to overcome his personal demons. I also really liked Paul Giamatti, who plays Travers' chauffeur Ralph. In fact, some of the high points in the film were the scenes between Thompson and Giamatti as they both have great chemistry.

                     But one thing that surprised me was how dark this film is. I mean, it does have its fair share of light-hearted moments, but I wouldn't say it is something for the entire family. I saw it with one of my friends at the movies and we both got a little teary. The reason it is pretty dark is because of how it shows that being a parent is difficult because whatever difficulties a parent goes through, the children have a front row seat to watch them go through with those difficulties. In Travers' case, she had to watch her father go through battling alcoholism and watch him slowly succumb to his alcoholism. It was that struggle that led Travers to create Mary Poppins, which brings me to my next point. I thought it was neat how they explained the origin of Mary Poppins because it shows just how authors or writers channel their inner turmoil into a piece of writing or even write characters that are based off of people from the author's life.

                     What I Didn't Like About It:
                    Nothing.

                     Consensus:
                   Overall, Saving Mr. Banks is a magical yet emotionally gripping tale about the story behind one of the most beloved family films of all time. This film, to quote Mary Poppins, is "practically perfect in every way".

Rating: 4.5/5