"Saving Mr. Banks" Review

"Saving Mr. Banks" works not only as an interesting making-of movie, but as a well-written, emotionally touching biopic.

Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) really wants to adapt one of his favorite books, "Mary Poppins," to film. However, in order to obtain the rights, he needs to convince the author, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson, "Nanny McPhee"), that he will take good care of her characters.

Travers is a proper, uptight British woman. She does not want to sell Disney the rights to her book for various reasons that are revealed throughout the film. She only agrees to consider selling the rights because she is having financial difficulties.

Disney invites her to his studio where she works with the script and song writers. She is very specific about what she wants, and it seems she is looking for every minuscule excuse to not let Disney adapt her book. Everyone is sucking up to her because one wrong move could mean she will decide not to sell the rights indefinitely.

Her attitude puzzles those involved because they do not understand that her reasons for being so clingy to her writings are deep-rooted in her childhood. There are some sad events that occurred as she was growing up, and "Mary Poppins" played an important role in coping with them.

What makes this movie great is the characters. It is interesting to see the contrast between P.L. Travers and Walt Disney. Travers is so uptight that she wants people to address her as Mrs. Travers at all times. Disney is so friendly and warm that he insists everyone call him Walt, and he likewise addresses other people by their first name. He often does this to Travers despite her resistance to it, and this creates some comedic dialogue.

It is also very interesting to see Mrs. Travers' character arc. She seems to change throughout the film in various ways. By the end of the movie, she is not the same person she was at the beginning. The audience also comes to an understanding of why she is who she is as more and more events from her childhood unfold.

When I first heard of this movie, I was excited to see Tom Hanks play Walt Disney. While he does a great job, like always, Emma Thompson is the person to get the most praise. She does an outstanding job portraying P.L Travers. Thompson has the acting ability to carry out all the changes her character goes through. The last scene in the movie features her in an emotional situation, and I really felt it.

Another reason the final scene worked is because of the writing and direction. The way the final scene is cut, there were several people in the theatre crying (and I may or may not have been one of them).

Another performance that stood out was Collin Farrell's. He plays P.L. Travers' father in the flashback scenes. His character is complicated in that he obviously has great love for his daughters, but he also has obvious problems. The audience is never told explicitly what they are, but they are implied as the movie goes on. There is one scene in particular where I really felt for the character because of Farrell's performance.

The only problem with this movie is the pacing. It is slow-moving at parts, but I feel this is mostly necessary. It is very dialogue-based, and it may not hold the attention of children.

The intended audience is definitely adults who have seen "Mary Poppins." If you have not seen it, you might want to do so before seeing this one. As an adult who grew up with it, this movie gives me a different perspective of the classic film. I used to think it was just a fun musical. After watching this, I understand that there is greater meaning to it.

I give this movie five out of five stars. The performances are great. The characters are interesting and well developed. It is intriguing to see the complications arise from just obtaining the film rights to a movie I grew up with. This is definitely in my top ten films of the year.

Content: Rated PG-13. It is actually a pretty light "PG-13" movie. There is very little language. The main reason it is rated PG-13 is there is some blood in some scenes.