Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The main plot is about Walt Disney trying to make the Mary Poppins movie. Disney had to get rights from the novels' author, an unpleasant woman named Helen Goff who went by the pen name of PL Travers. Thompson plays Travers as an über-British, frosty, frigid spinster who hated everything about the movie and spread misery around her.The secondary plot explains why Travers was such a b—tch. She had a traumatic childhood and her alcoholic, banker father died when she was 7. Therefore, the big revelation is that Mary Poppins is not actually about Mary, but about Mr. Banks who stands for Travers's father and get a happy ending instead of dying young. What it is not explained is why a childhood movie is about bankers and why it is titled Mary Poppins, since Mary is actually a secondary character.Moreover, the revelation about Travers's past does not excuse her. Travers' miserable childhood does not make her more sympathetic. More misery is added by a scene during which Disney trades stories of his own miserable childhood, trying to get Travers on board - or maybe to prove that even an unhappy child can grow into a happy adult...Disney did not invite her to the premiere of Mary Poppins and I can fully understand his uneasiness about having this controlling and ungrateful woman around, to spread more misery.The whole story was not worth a movie, especially not a very long one as this. The Disney- Travers relationship is unpleasant from start to finish (he is manipulative, she is stubborn and unyielding). The father-daughter history is very depressing.

Many of us consider Marry Poppins a classic, one that has endured and still entertains audiences today. Saving Mr Banks takes an interesting look at the author behind Mary Poppins and the film adaption. Not many would be familiar with the background and difficult personality of the author. We also learn the inspiration behind the timeless classic. The film excels in getting you to dislike and maybe even hate Emma Thompson's character, P. L. Travers. She is disagreeable, stubborn and peculiar. Even though she is in need of income to save her home she is not willing to make a deal until all her demands are met. One important demand is the absence of animation which is central to many Disney films. Over the course of the film she warms up to the writers and Walt Disney who write the songs that we all know and love. When she cancels the deal and flies back to the U.K. she is visited again by none other than Walt Disney. We learn that her hopes for the film as in the books were not to save the children but their father which fictitiously based on her father. Mary Poppins was the nanny who saved everything that her real nanny or aunt could not do in her life. She lost her father as shown in her flashbacks. The real reason behind this classic creation endears her to the audience as we are told Mr Banks will be not just be saved he will be honored. While Mary Poppins brought joy to many to many children's lives the author also sought to bring joy and solace to her inner child and fathers memory. Excellent acting from Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Thompson who deliver star performances.

Author P.L. Travers reflects on her childhood after reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen. Unfortunately the trailer and the movie are way too different this movie was a major disappointment and the reason why is the character of Emma Thompson although an amazing and talented actress her character is annoying and complains about everything and not even Tom Hanks as Walt Disney can't help it and save it the acting is fine but the troubled and annoying character of P.L. Travers played by Thompson is killing the whole film and the pacing is just off during most of the movie and it's a shame cause this is a movie i wanted to like but as it turns out i didn't

An unhappy woman becomes a smashing success thanks to the publication of what is now a children's classic. Like many artists, she seemed to abhor fame and when Hollywood beckoned, she declined. Well, at least with the creator of the allegedly happiest place on earth. The woman was the Austrian born P.L. Travers, her boss to be Walt Disney, and her leading character a nanny almost as prickly as her who was known as Mary Poppins.It should be noted that the first production of Mary Poppins anywhere was a television version starring character actress Mary Wickes back in 1949. Ironically, right before the movie first went into production, Wickes posed for artist drawings for Cruella Deville in "101 Dalmatians". That was an the animated film, and P.L. Travers wanted no part of animation for her story. She showed up in Los Angeles in 1961 already copping an attitude, and her first meeting with Disney, songwriters the Sherman Brothers and the screenwriters and director did not go off well in the least. But as the Disney magic begin to roll in, this Travers focus on her life as a little girl, her family problems and incidents which she would later utilized in creating her classic stories. Some of the flashbacks slow the film down completely, but her character would not really be understandable had they been omitted.Honestly, I liked the character of P.L. Travers, here played by the glorious Emma Thompson portrayed with a prickly look like "Wicked Witch of the West" Margaret Hamilton. She is certainly not fond of little children, being rather aggravated by the presence of tons of teddy bears and other stuffed animals in her hotel room. She's rather curt with children when she meets them and even at Disneyland won't sign autographs. But in spite of all of that, there is something underneath the surface that shows the sad little girl, and because of that I was able to like her in spite of her being a tremendous grouch. When she during her first hearing of "Let's Go Fly a Kite", it is a magical moment just like the many that Disney provided over its glory years. I must admit, however, that Tom Hanks simply seems to be playing Tom Hanks, vaguely made up to resemble Walt Disney but really not coming like him from my memory of original building of the wonderful world of Disney back during the Glory Days of my own childhood. That is a minor complaint, because I have seen many other portrayals of real-life figures that were even further away than from what Hanks does with Walt. When Emma Thompson is on screen, the film truly shines and its success is due in the most part to her very detailed performance which is like nothing she had played every before. The conclusion of her story is sad, and her involvement with the much later stage version rather prickly as well, but what results is a fascinating story of great Hollywood history that minus the flaws was quite an achievement. In a sense, I liked it more than then the film which I think today is highly overrated, and certainly much more than the overblown version that came to Broadway in the middle of the first decade of the millennium.