Saving Mr. Banks [PG]

After 20 years of negotiation, it seems that Walk Disney is finally going to get the green light to make P. L. Travers’ Mary Poppins into a movie. There is just one final step: 2 weeks of screenplay construction and editing with the author herself, after which he’s sure to get the rights. But Travers proves to be a hard woman to get on the right side of and from her first demands of ‘no animation’ and ‘not a musical’; Walt and his creative team begin bracing themselves for what is sure to be a long fortnight. 

From the trailers, it’s hinted that this movie is another biopic about the making of a movie, but like Hitchcock, the making-a-movie plotline takes the back seat as the real colours of the film begin to shine through. Saving Mr. Banks is a beautiful story about self-forgiveness, about the past always breaking into the present, and about being brave enough to let go of things that are very close to the heart. It made me laugh, it made me sigh, it even made me choke up a little at one point. This is a very lovely movie. 

After 20 years of negotiation, it seems that Walk Disney is finally going to get the green light to make P. L. Travers’ Mary Poppins into a movie. There is just one final step: 2 weeks of screenplay construction and editing with the author herself, after which he’s sure to get the rights. But Travers proves to be a hard woman to get on the right side of and from her first demands of ‘no animation’ and ‘not a musical’; Walt and his creative team begin bracing themselves for what is sure to be a long fortnight. 

Like many greats, this movie is made up of a series of layers of plots that all bleed into one another and work harmoniously to culminate in something wonderful. On the surface we have the story of the domineering Travers making the movie-making road a very bumpy one indeed. We then have these well-placed and quite constant flashbacks to Travers’ past, setting up her side of the story. The flashbacks share just as much screen time as the present reality, making the second story just as strong a one as the central plot. Underneath this, we’ve got the character transformation that happens to Travers: the winning of the shrew’s affections, melting the frozen heart, whatever other cliché you can come up with. I say cliché and I really don’t mean it because when I saw this third, subtle plotline, come into focus, it really was something unsuspected and therefore, really lovely. The transformation is subtle, so much so that you could indeed miss it completely. A series of minute scenes just hint at the change: Travers cuddling a plush Mickey Mouse, her sitting at the bar with no one to talk to, the hug she shared with her driver. Seriously, watch out for it, it’s really lovely. 

Although this can be construed as a sad film, indeed it is rather sad and dramatic, there is a gorgeous balance of light-heartedness and fun that comes in the frequent spatters of nostalgic intertextuality. A lot of the non-flashback screen time is devoted to Travers working with the screenwriter and composers so there is a lot of singing of our favourite tunes from the timeless classic that we all know and love. 

Emma Thompson as Travers deserves a round of applause because it cannot possibly be easy to play a woman who appears to be so tormented by her past as well as her present. Emma’s performance was a very lovely conveyance of the old adage “you’re your own worst enemy”: she was stubborn, stern, delightfully literate, and then underneath all this you could see the sadness and loneliness that plagued her. I love Emma Thompson. 

Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Annie Rose Buckley, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Bradley Whitford, B. J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Melanie Paxson, Kather Baker, and Rachel Griffiths, Saving Mr. Banks is a lovely little film filled with nostalgia, drama, conflict, comedy, and warmth. I enjoyed it very much.