"Just A Spoonful of Sugar" - A Review of "Saving Mr. Banks"

Saving Mr. Banks, the tale of author P.L. Travers reluctancy and Walt Disney’s persistence to bring one of the most beloved classic movie characters to life on the big screen, starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers, gives audiences the story, albeit watered down somewhat, in an emotional yet easy to swallow charming manner.

There is no doubt that the best part of this movie is the acting. Every performer gave their all in their respective roles, and it is clearly evident. Tom Hanks as Walt Disney brought the right amount of charm and whimsy to the role of the king of the cartoon empire. Thompson gave an oscar worthy performance as the standoffish and stubborn Travers, and as the movie went on, and the more emotional side of Travers was revealed, she was able to break the stubbornness and show us a more sensitive side of the defensive author. Colin Farrell surely gave the best performance of the movie, and his career in portraying Travers’ father. His effort to keep it all together for his family, while actually falling apart due to alcoholism and lack of job stability was interpreted beautifully by Farrell. Each of the supporting cast did a phenomenal job as well. Giamatti, Novak, Schwartzman, and Whitford all gave notable performances as well.

There were actually two stories told, The primary story, The courting of Ms. Travers by Disney, and then the story that actually inspired the story of Mary Poppins, Travers’ childhood. The latter was told in flashbacks within the first story. I personally am not a fan of flashbacks, and believe they are rarely done right, but “Banks” almost does it right, with a few flashbacks seemingly out of place within the primary story, but overall the flashbacks do a terrific job of drawing parallels between the Mary Poppins story, Travers’ life, and why she is so reluctant to let the characters go.

The primary story is told just as well, and you find yourself rooting for Disney and the writers due to Travers’ put offish attitude. Her attitude could be a problem, but Ralph, the driver assigned to Travers played by Giamatti, does a fantastic job of balancing the audience’s emotions and allowing for the audience to sympathize with Travers. The relationship between the two keeps Travers from being disliked by the viewer and keeps her from being made into the “villain” of the film.

Saving Mr. Banks was a great film that captured the same spirit of Mary Poppins, while telling the story of how she made her way to the big screen. Although Disney’s character was a bit watered down, the story didn’t suffer from it. All in all, Saving Mr. Banks is a great movie that probably wouldn’t appeal to anyone who hasn’t seen Mary Poppins, but gives an emotional and heartwarming story to those who have seen and love the classic Disney film.