Corny but Acted in Earnest

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2014)

There is just something about watching Tom Hanks be Tom Hanks. It's just this warm, comfortable feeling, seeing that man light up the screen. It's almost like the feeling you get watching a Disney movie. Saving Mr. Banks, Disney's new movie starring Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, gives us the opportunity to do both of those things.
Hanks is fantastic as Walt Disney, who spends his days trying to court stuffy British author P.L. Travers (Thompson) into allowing his studio to adapt her Mary Poppins for the screen. What ensues, as you can imagine, is a cat-and-mouse comedy about her ridiculous demands and Disney's attempts to overcome them.
You see, Disney wants to be accommodating. Decades before the film's 1961 setting, Walt made a promise to his young daughters to make a movie out of Poppins, a promise he takes incredibly seriously and pursues for over twenty years. When Travers, who refuses to write new material, begins to run out of money, she is strongly advised to meet with Disney in California to hear his offer for the film rights to her novel.
Travers, however, wants complete control over the entire production. She routinely insults Disney and his silly animation, making him promise that no cartoons would find their way into a film of Poppins. She also disapproves of songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman (B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman, respectively), and takes issue with the casting of the picture, particularly that of Dick Van Dyke.
Over the course of these weeks-long negotiations, the narrative is constantly being interrupted by persistent flashbacks to Travers' childhood in Australia. Her alcoholic father (Colin Farrell) inspires her imagination, but also serves as the reason for her bitterness as an adult.
Saving Mr. Banks is a lovely film in many regards, in particular its acting. Hanks is wonderful as Disney, and his final monologue, delivered from a stationary position while sitting down, is testament to how much he can do with a simplistic setting. Another standout is the always- great Paul Giamatti, playing Travers' chauffeur. Giamatti has no business in a role this insignificant, but takes the dialogue he is given and turns it to pure gold. His performance had me choked up more than once.
Despite its good qualities, Banks has numerous pitfalls, as well. Its script has "Disney" written all over it. Much of the dialogue is hokey and transparent, even in the hands of professionals like Thompson and Hanks. The flashback sequences are spread throughout the film in such a way that we get one scene in the present followed by one flashback, and so on. Structuring the picture in such a manner diminishes the real story (Travers vs. Disney) and instead tries to convince us that Travers' origin story is equally as important. This may be, but it is nowhere near as compelling, and its predictable end comes too late for the drama of the main storyline to redeem it. Director John Lee Hancock would have done better to have contained the flashbacks to a few lengthier sequences and wrapped them up at about the two-thirds mark of the two-plus hour running time.
The biggest problem with Saving Mr. Banks, though, is Travers herself. She never becomes a likable or relate-able character, even after the big reveal of why she is so embittered. Walt Disney's charm may break down Travers' psychological walls, but cannot demolish those built between Travers and the viewer throughout the picture. Thompson turns in a great performance, but the movie would have been more effective if told from Disney's perspective rather than Travers'.