A warm hug, with surprisingly strong depth

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2020)

POSITIVES:
1) I genuinely think every performance in the film is great; if I had to pick a favourite it would be Paul Giamatti, who fills his supporting character with warmth and personality
2) I was expecting the film to be sickly sweet, so I was surprised by the strong moments of darkness, emotion and sadness that are in the film
3) I actually think seeing this film will give me even greater enjoyment the next time I watch Mary Poppins; the film is almost like a fantastic prequel / behind the scenes of Mary Poppins
NEGATIVES:
1) There are definitely times in the film in which the connections to Mary Poppins are too on the nose
2) The first half of the film is certainly more baggy than the second half. There are some scenes in the first half, especially some of the flashback scenes, that add next to nothing to the film other than to bloat the runtime