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Mr. Disney’s – or Walt, as he was insistent on being called – courtship with Mrs. Travers (on her quite pushy insistence), took twenty years, until her eventual visit to Burbank, CA in 1961. Walt’s doggedness had a simple reason: he had made a promise to his daughters that he would make Mary Poppins, the book, into a motion picture. Mrs. Travers had a simpler reason to discard Walt’s promise: she hated Disney – or any other corporate empire.
“I won’t have (Mary Poppins) turned into one of your silly cartoons”, she declares on numerous occasions – no matter the family-like atmosphere at Disney’s (she makes life hell for the movie’s writer and music composers played by Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford and B. J. Novak). The jellos and pastries, or giant-sized fluffy Mickey Mouse plush toys matter little, even to an author of children stories…or do they?
Mrs. Travers, of course, has a backstory to prove her point. Many long years ago, in her childhood, she had a whimsical father who loved make-believe fantasy and alcohol. Played by Collin Farrell, Travers Goff comes off as a sympathetic loser man-child whose thirst for liqueur stops him from realizing the harshness of real-life (not that he doesn’t understand the necessity of it, if we count Mr. Farrell’s well played conflicted expressions). Goff is a banker, and as people who know Mary Poppins may remember, the Mr. Banks of “Saving Mr. Banks”, the children’s father who Mary Poppins flies in to help, is also a banker.
Walt, of course, is wise about the parallels between Mrs. Travers book and her life. So are we, because of director John Lee Hancock, and screenwriters Kelly Marcel and Sue Smiths, storytelling. The fluctuation between Mrs. Travers past and 1961, takes a lot away from the narrative. Both movies – and I count them separate for a reason – move at a different rhythm. There is an emotional disconnect even when Mr. Hancock is unraveling Mrs. Travers days with Walt and co.
We can argue that “Saving Mr. Banks” needed detachment to tell its story – and it is a worthwhile argument – regardless, there is a constant air of nonchalance that takes a lot of genuine sentiment away from the narrative.
As Mrs. Travels, Emma Thompson is at her natural cynical screen-gulping best; however there are times when she is misdirected in scenes (the moments that trigger her past, are at best, machinated according to moviemaking norms). Tom Hanks, however, is the perfect Walt. Mr. Hanks earnest likability, with his his own slight variation on Walt, creates a seamless likeness of the real Mr. Disney – which goes right alongside the idea of the Disney corporate philosophy: selling imagination by making us believe in characters on screen.
While Mr. Hanks, Ms. Thompson, and even supporting players like Paul Giamatti’s Ralph (Mrs. Travers chauffer in LA, and maybe her only friend), and Mr. Schwartzman, Mr. Whitford and Mr. Novak, are picture-perfect (in fact, most scenes work because of them), “Saving Mr. Banks” is a text-book interpretation of Walt and Mrs. Travers’ real-life. The magic of imagination, unlike most of what Walt and his company produces, is in limited quantity here.
Released by Disney, “Saving Mr. Banks” is rated PG-13 for scenes of death and alcoholism.
Directed by John Lee Hancock; Produced by Alison Owen, Ian Collie and Philip Steuer; Written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith; Cinematography by John Schwartzman; Edited by Mark Livolsi; Music by Thomas Newman.
Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Annie Rose Buckley, Ruth Wilson, B. J. Novak, Rachel Griffiths, Kathy Baker, Colin Farrell and Melanie Paxson.
Despite living movies 24/7 (http://kamranjawaid.com), the writer is still truly, madly, deeply in love with cinema; the root cause of this anomaly requires further clinical trials.
He tweets @kamranjawaid
