Saving Mr. Banks
John Lee Hancock
Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
125 min.
Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, B.J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Kathy Baker, Rachel Griffiths
PG-13 for thematic elements including some unsettling images
Almost 50 years ago, Walt Disney’s first Best Picture nomination came for a partly-animated live-action adaptation of P.L. Travers’ acclaimed children’s books. Those stories told of a nanny riding into town on the wind and bringing together a family crumbling from the inside. Mary Poppins was one of the most successful films ever made and remains a treasure to many generations of filmgoers. There was a time when the film almost never was, Saving Mr. Banks tells that story, but digs beyond that narrative into the heart of a mournful daughter.
In 2005, Emma Thompson took on the role of a different nanny whose magical powers helped transform the lives of seven unruly children. As Nanny McPhee and its sequel proved Emma Thompson has the ability to blend into just about any role with simplicity and finesse. Three years after her last outing as Nanny McPhee, Thompson takes on the role of an author who created the ultimate nanny inspiration, Mary Poppins. P.L. Travers is something of a recluse, living off the royalties of her books, but teetering close to the edge of financial ruin. She hasn’t written anything new and her funds are drying up. Her solicitor believes partnering with Walt Disney on his live-action version of her Mary Poppins character will stave off financial ruin, but she can’t bring herself to allow a man like Disney to destroy the work she put so much heart and soul into.
After she agrees to sit in for script readings with final say on whether the rights to her character would be signed over to Disney, her time in Los Angeles provides an opportunity to relive her character’s origins an examine her childhood that led up to its craetion. Shifting back-and-forth between her childhood and the Disney studios, Saving Mr. Banks is more than just a historical rendering of a period in film history never explored on screen before.
Thompson has played a variety of roles on the big screen, but few have felt so vicious and antagonistic as this one. She imbues Travers with distrust, anger, frustration and beligerance, yet beneath all of this, lies a wounded woman, torn by her past. The film explores her complex emotions about her alcoholic father, played by a superb Colin Farrell, who loved her much but let his inner demons slowly destroy their family unit. Her family’s near collapse provides the inspiration for the Mary Poppins character, a magical nanny who has the power to come in and save the Banks family when no one could save her own.
Hanks provides affable support as the flawed Walt Disney, a character not as warts-and-all as we might have prefered from a less biased studio. His determination to get the film made is blocked by Travers at nearly every turn, leading to intense consternation. Hanks does a wonderful job conveying this, but he never lets the character get so out of hand that his image is tarnished. Hanks could have made that leap if given the opportunity.
Casting Paul Giamatti and Bradley Whitford was genius as their characters are fascinating, Giamatti’s based on a fictional construct while Whitford was based on the actual screenwriter Don DaGradi. Whitford has always been a fine actor and his typical long-winded monologues are kept to a minimum allowing him to add a minimalist frustration, yet hopeful spirit. Giamatti could almost be a literary ghost in the story, providing grist for the sawmill turning within Travers that must clear the wreckage preventing the mill from operating at full functionality. B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman play the songwriting duo Robert and Richard Sherman, but the characters are underdeveloped and the two young thespians look little like their counterparts. Still, they are given some interesting scenes to perform and they do fine in them, I just wasn’t that impressed by them.
Director John Lee Hancock brings to life the story of Travers and Disney’s combative relationship based on a script by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith that say for years without finding anyone willing to produce it. Their struggle to get it realized on screen doesn’t quite match the saga they portray, but parallels are of course fascinating. The film is an obvious love letter to Walt Disney whose perseverance, humanity and forward-thinking helped turn the company into the most successful and one of the most important studios in history. Yet, having this filmed by the very company that profits from the sanitization of Walt Disney’s checkered and combative past diminishes the historical validity of the production.
It’s more accurate to say that the film is loosely based on the antagonistic relationship between Travers and everyone else working on the production, for the film has a more happy and satisfying conclusion to a mass audience than would the real facts behind the tale. Refocusing the plot to revolve around a writer’s exploration of her childhood demons is a more fascinating and compelling adventure than a straight, dry retelling of facts and while it may be irksome that much of the situation is sugarcoated, there’s no denying that Hancock has crafted a heartfelt, genuine film.
Guarantees: Actress (Emma Thompson), Production Design, Costume Design
Probables: Picture, Supporting Actor (Tom Hanks), Editing, Cinematography
Potentials: Director, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Sound Mixing
Unlikelies: Makeup & Hairstyling
December 12, 2013
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