Saving Mr. Banks is Disney’s story of the making of Mary Poppins, centering on the conflict between the avuncular Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) and the harshly fastidious author of the source material, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson). It’s a pleasing and satisfying movie, albeit sentimental, predictable and emotionally manipulative. (I saw this with The Wife, who found the movie to be deeper than I did.)
From top-to-bottom, Saving Mr. Banks is quite well-acted. It’s great to see Hanks bring alive Walt Disney – such an icon, especially to the Baby Boomers who watched him introduce the most imaginative family entertainment every Sunday night on television. Colin Farrell is very good as the playful and loving but unreliable father. Kathy Baker and Paul Giamatti are good in particularly unchallenging roles. Emma Thompson does just fine, too, although her role has been written to be somewhat one-dimensional.
Here’s a pet peeve of mine – the trailer gives away the heart of story (and the reason for the title). If you’re interested in Walt Disney and/or Mary Poppins – and you have two hours – skip the trailer and see the movie. Otherwise, just watch the trailer.
