Saving Mr. Banks (Review)

Quick Synopsis from IMDb: While meeting with filmmaker, Walt Disney, Author P.L. Travers reflects on her difficult childhood past during production for the adaption of her novel, Mary Poppins. Walt Disney had asked for the rights of Mary Poppins for 20 years, to keep the promise he made to his daughters, which was to make her book come alive.

Directed By: John Lee Hancock

I went to the movies by myself to watch this film, and let me tell you, the audience was a lot older, somewhere between 50 and 70 years old; maybe older. But it was a lovely site, because I'm pretty sure most of them were kids when Mary Poppins was first released and they enjoyed it. 

I love watching behind the scenes for movies and enjoy watching the process of them and exploring where a story comes from, so I was extremely excited to watch this film. The story behind Mary Poppins was definitely something I wouldn't have gathered at all but it was quite an exceptional story about a girl (P.L. Travers) and her father. I was very surprised by the content of this film but it did a great job of making me sob near the end because it reminded me of someone that I had lost. I understood P.L. Travers behavior and why she was scared to sign the rights over to Disney because her story of Mary Poppins wasn't just a creation, but it was her childhood memories and she feared that Disney would destroy the image of her father, who is, Mr. Banks in the story and Disney's adaption. 

Emma Thompson portrays P.L. Travers, the woman who started it all. The character, Travers, is a woman who is quite stubborn and afraid to put her story of Mary Poppins in the hands of Walt Disney, because she fears that he may ruin the story, especially one character in particular: Mr. Banks. There are moments in the movie where they give flashbacks as she stares out of a window, thinking of her past back when she was a little girl (the young version of Travers was portrayed by Annie Rose Buckley). I definitely could tell that Travers once lived life in a fantasy, but due to parts of her past, reality hit her hard which was the cause for her stiff personality. P.L. Travers certainly gave Disney and the others a hard time while in the process of creating this film, and at the end of the movie, they actually let the actual recording from the rehearsals play during the credits. 

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney was outstanding and he captured his personality very well; especially with the way he talked. I was quite mesmerized in his performance as Walt because as much as a Disney fan I am, I wish I had the chance to meet the real Walt Disney. I definitely learned some other facts about Walt Disney that I didn't know about such as: His bad smoking habit and he didn't like anyone to see him smoking, along with his upbringing as a child in what seemed to be in an abusive home. Although, it was his dream and imagination that kept him going to escape that reality. 

Who is 'Mr. Banks'?

For all you Disney fans out there, please forgive me, it's been a while since I've watched Mary Poppins and before I watched the movie I had to remind myself who Mr. Banks was. For those of you who forgot as well, Mr. Banks was Jane and Michael's father in Disney's Mary Poppins (as well as the book). As the story is unfolding in the movie, we learn that P.L. Travers wrote Mr. Banks as a portrayal of her own father. In Saving Mr. Banks, he is portrayed by actor Colin Farrell and he does a marvelous job with the role and despite him being an alcoholic, making bad choices for his family, which caused negative looks in other people's eyes, he did not fail to show love for his daughters and spreading imagination into their eyes, as though giving a veil to the reality that they lived in. Every moment shared between father and daughter in this movie is both captivating and heartbreaking. 

I also would love to add that the minor actors in this film is what brought its high spirits to this movie: Paul Giamatti as Ralph, the chauffeur, B.J. Novak & Jason Schwartzman as the Sherman Brothers, and Bradley Whitford as DonDaGradi.  

Overall, I felt the truth in this movie and the realistic performances from everyone. I feel like it's definitely Oscar worthy. There was so much emotion in this film that I felt like it grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go, which made me cry. No, no, I'm not talking just miniature tears, but an actual sob, only because this film made me think of my grandfather. The lovable personality of P.L. Traverse's father made me think of that same lovable personality my grandfather had before he passed. Saving Mr. Banks definitely shows that there is a child within all of us whether our past was good or bad. This movie is quite long, but it's definitely worth an adventure worth soaring on letting your emotions fly onto the east wind. 

I would like to warn you that, this movie is PG-13 because of the content such as alcoholism, suicide, and hardships of a past childhood, so this would NOT be a great movie to take your young ones to see. 

My Rating: 4.5/5