Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr, Banks, the latest film from director John Lee Hancock is not the "feel good" movie of the year, to say the least. Brought to life by the man that brought us The Blindside, Saving Mr. Banks is a true dramatic retelling of how the iconic Mary Poppins was brought to the screen. It's a heavier film that I thought it was going in and it possess more heart that I initially gave it credit for, because of that I give Saving Mr. Banks three buckets of Killer Korn.










I honestly don't think Saving Mr. Banks could have cast any better. Tom Hanks playing Walt Disney, Emma Thompson playing the immovable author of the Mary Poppins books P.L. Travers, Colin Farrell playing Travers Goff, Paul Giamatti playing the affable limo driver Ralph, Bradly Whitford playing Disney screenwriter Don DaGradi, and B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman playing the talented songwriting brothers Robert and Richard Sherman respectively. If they gave out golden statues for best cast then Ronna Kress would walk home with one. I'm sure it wasn't hard to get this movie cast, but to get the right people into the right roles is never easy. They got the job right on this movie.

Saving Mr. Banks is the story of the struggle Walt Disney and his crew underwent to get the rights to and make the movie of the iconic character Mary Poppins. According to the story, Walt (he prefers first names) has been approaching Ms. Travers (she doesn't) for almost twenty years about the buying the book rights to her book and she has declined him every year. This time however, she's not selling anymore books, her royalties have dried up, and she could lose her house and that just won't do. So she reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to meet Walt and what she does to her hotel room after Walt adorns it with the stuffed animal likenesses of his famed characters, you have a pretty good idea Ms. Travers won't be an easy sell (spoiler alert, they all end up in the closet...well not all of them).

Ms. Travers has final script approval, doesn't want the movie to be a musical, and demands no animation in the movie, with Walt is at his wits end Ms. Travers flies back to London. Now while Tom and Emma are on the screen together are magical, the real star of the show is Colin Farrell. His Travers Goff grabs your heart, captures your imagination, and puts a smile on your face with his sense of humor. Sadly he is a tragic character that needs saving, more from himself than from something else. The relationship between him and his daughter "Princess" Ginty, played wonderfully by relative newcomer Annie Rose Buckley is full of laughter, wonder, and tears.

Once Walt figures out the Mary Poppins didn't arrive to save the children, but instead was there to save their father did things finally start moving in the right direction. Saving Mr. Banks is a charming yet heartbreaking tale of learning how to let go of your past and how not to let it get in the way of your present or future. Scored wonderfully by Thomas Newman, the music added a really beautiful element to a movie that could have done without music. It was a fitting score. I highly recommend Saving Mr. Banks, but you may want to keep some tissues on hand, yeah...it's another one of those and I'll see you at the theater.