Saving Mr. Banks is one of the prime examples of the golden rule that states: “You don’t take your historical facts from a movie.” No matter whether it’s “inspired by true events” or “based on true events”, there will always be something that has been processed, cut, excluded or overblown for the sake of “movie magic”. And I think that is the correct thing to do, as long as you understand the difference between film vs real life. Take this film, for example. The base of the story is accurate. But if you search how much was changed, tailored with or straight-up omitted from the film (for more information, check out the Wikipedia article for this film), you will see what I mean by saying movies are not historical re-enactments. But that’s because they shouldn’t be. And Saving Mr. Banks is better for it.

I know it’s popular to view Disney corporation as this evil entity that only cares about money, profits and dollar bills. But, part of the reason I liked this film was that it wasn’t about “the Disney” we know and have now; it was (partially) about the person who co-founded Disney – Walt. Tom Hanks delivers a great performance, and I think he portrayed Walt very well. I can only judge based on several interviews I listened to with people who knew and worked with the actual Walt Disney, and their description matches what Hanks delivered on the screen. And that person might have been quirky or weird, but one almost must be like that to do what Walt did. Hanks managed to personify this almost mythical person, and I thought he did well with his performance.

But the main star of this film is undoubtedly Emma Thompson who might have portrayed the most English person who has ever Englished on the silver screen, and I have seen many. I heard some interviews about her (P. L. Travers) and how difficult and strict she was, and I thought Emma portrayed her exceptionally well. There is always a risk of playing a real-life person who was known for being difficult because you don’t want to downplay that, but also, you can’t portray them as an asshole because you, as an actor, have failed. And Emma’s delivery was pristine; she managed to tippy-toe on the line between a hard-ass, a bit of comedic character and a broken old soul who needed somebody to understand the story of Mary Poppins; and what that entails. Again, I am not talking about the real P. L. Travers, this isn’t a documentary. I am talking about the movie version that Emma helped to create, and she absolutely nailed her performance.

Regarding the film itself, I thought it was a well-made 100-minute film that, unfortunately, ran for 125 minutes. The flashbacks to P. L.’s childhood helped from the beginning, but there was a point where I was more invested in the storyline of making the film and not in the past because I understood from only a couple of scenes what it was that made her “tick”. But since this is a Hollywood movie, you can’t just “show, don’t tell”; you need to show, dance around it, and then spell it out towards the end; to make sure everyone understands you.

The perfect example is her resentment of pears. You kind of understand from the first flashback that there was something triggering from her childhood based on the first or second flashback we saw. And honestly, I would have been happy had we left it out like that, but no, we have to get a scene, later on, involving pears for you to “truly understand” why she reacted in such a way. I understand I might be crazy, trying to look for subtlety in a Disney film about a film that’s part of Disney history. But that was my only problem with Saving Mr. Banks; during the first hour, I was really into the film, and it was quite a shock, even for me. But the more the movie continued, the less interested I became because you can only “get it” so many times before the film ends. It’s like listening to a stand-up comedian whose jokes have the same punchline for an hour. Sure, the first two or three jokes will be alright, but if the tenth joke’s punchline is the same as the nine prior, you are walking out. Except I don’t walk out (or, in this case, switch movies off) of screenings (or when at home, don’t stop the film).

Overall, Saving Mr. Banks was a surprisingly charming film with exceptionally great Emma Thompson. I didn’t grow up watching Mary Poppins (1964), I only watched it not that long ago and didn’t care for it that much, and I still managed to enjoy the movie about how Mary Poppins was made. And to me, that’s saying something. So I would suspect if you did grow up watching Mary Poppins, love all things Disney and understand that films can’t be taken as historical facts, you will probably adore this film. I was surprised by how much I liked it. That tells me I probably have to re-visit Mary Poppins.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke