If you have read my review of Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones(2014) then you know I walked out of it because the movie failed on many levels. Well Saving Mr. Banks is the movie I went to see in its place and I got to say it is a far more superb movie than The Marked Ones.
Saving Mr. Banks is about P.L. Travers and Walt Disney fighting over the how to best adapt her novel to film. P.L. Travers also "reflects on her difficult childhood" (imdb.com) during the preproduction stages of Mary Poppins (1964). It is written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith and directed by John Lee Hancock. The film has an amazing ensemble of actors; Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers, Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty, Colin Farrell as Travers Goff, Ruth Wilson as Margaret Goff, Paul Giamatti as Ralph, Bradley Whitford as Don DaGradi, B.J. Novak as Robert Sherman, and Jason Schwartsman as Richard Sherman amongst others.
Colin Farrell steals the show with his performance as Travers Goff; due in large part to the marketing of this movie which withheld the childhood scenes from the commercials which I have seen. His scenes are powerful and provide much backbone to the present day scenes because of how flawed the character is. Travers Goff at first seemed to be a happy go lucky family man with a great job that loved his family. But then his alcoholism problems come into play which end up with his demise. He is the source of the internal and external conflict between P.L. Travers & herself and P.L. Travers & Disney (studio, Walt, Robert & Richard Sherman, and Don DaGradi).
Emma Thompson is magical in the role of P.L. Travers. Her performance is sublime. She puts on a "facade" of bravado, is particular about everything from grammar to speech and mannerisms, and yet the same time exudes a sense of vulnerability that hints at the internal conflicts which are then supported by the flashback scenes which focus on Travers' relationship with her father and how it is strained as it goes on.
John Lee Hancock did a wonderful job with this film. It did not have pacing issues, it was entertaining, provided a (possibly fictionalized or exaggerated) history that is about the making of one of the most beloved Disney classic films ever Mary Poppins, delivers great performances, great music tracks, and very moving. This film deserves an A+.
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