Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Absolutely amazing

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The main plot is about Walt Disney trying to make the Mary Poppins movie. Disney had to get rights from the novels' author, an unpleasant woman named Helen Goff who went by the pen name of PL Travers. Thompson plays Travers as an über-British, frosty, frigid spinster who hated everything about the movie and spread misery around her.The secondary plot explains why Travers was such a b—tch. She had a traumatic childhood and her alcoholic, banker father died when she was 7. Therefore, the big revelation is that Mary Poppins is not actually about Mary, but about Mr. Banks who stands for Travers's father and get a happy ending instead of dying young. What it is not explained is why a childhood movie is about bankers and why it is titled Mary Poppins, since Mary is actually a secondary character.Moreover, the revelation about Travers's past does not excuse her. Travers' miserable childhood does not make her more sympathetic. More misery is added by a scene during which Disney trades stories of his own miserable childhood, trying to get Travers on board - or maybe to prove that even an unhappy child can grow into a happy adult...Disney did not invite her to the premiere of Mary Poppins and I can fully understand his uneasiness about having this controlling and ungrateful woman around, to spread more misery.The whole story was not worth a movie, especially not a very long one as this. The Disney- Travers relationship is unpleasant from start to finish (he is manipulative, she is stubborn and unyielding). The father-daughter history is very depressing.

Well,Mrs Travers certainly did that,basing her best known book "Mary Poppins" on her own somewhat fraught childhood. Having achieved that catharsis she had no wish to see her characters "Disneyfied" by a man whose only achievement as far as she could reckon was to have drawn a cartoon mouse and gotten very rich on it. Thus the contest began between this strong determinedly unimpressed Englishwoman and one of Hollywood's richest movie moguls for the "soul" if you like,of the world's favourite nanny. Well,we know of course that Mr Disney won her over eventually and ended up making possibly his best - ever film,and probably his most - loved. The "Mr Banks" in the title refers not only to Mr D.Tomlinson's character but that of her father,a gently alcoholic businessman in Australia on whom it was based. Miss E.Thompson is blindingly good as Miss Travers,charming yet steely right up to the end. Mr T.Hanks plays his usual good - humoured and slightly exasperated character,a turn he has made his own over the last 30 years. It's a sad and funny quite uplifting film - rather like "Mary Poppins" itself. Even if you haven't been to the pictures since 1964 when you sat down to watch Julie and Dick armed with a "Kia - Ora" and some popcorn I urge you to give it a go.

Disney and Poppins were part of my childhood, to be sure. Doesn't mean I want to go back there, but this was a pleasant excursion. Thompson and Hanks are perfect as the leads. Interesting that two characters who, these days, garner mixed reviews are so sympathetically rendered, but in a real way. At the centre of this, Mary Poppins is retold from the perspectives of its creator, the scriptwriters and musicians who had to work with her (tough work) and Disney himself. Real life, real and imagined pasts and the world of Poppins are successfully intertwined. Ultimately, this is a film which knows what film-making is about, communicating a real story in a creative, entertaining and ultimately moving way.

The end of the movie shows Travers watching Mary Poppins with what appears to be acceptance and even enjoyment.That's not at all what happened. The truth is, she watched Mary Poppins and hated it. She never forgave herself for trusting Disney with her creation, and despite Disney's repeated efforts to gain her permission to film a sequel, she denied him at every turn and never forgave him. She went to her grave regretting having ever met the man.That's the real ending, but of course Disney Studios would never release a movie like that. One star and nothing more, for trying to change history.