Good Old-Fashioned Tear-Jerker

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2014)

This film recounts the story of how the 1964 Disney classic film "Mary Poppins" came to be. Author P.L. Travers was adamant in keeping her precious character Mary away from Hollywood until rough financial times force her to concede. But, she would not make it easy for the man who wants the movie made, even if he was Walt Disney himself.
Emma Thompson plays the bitter curmudgeon P.L. Travers so well, like it was second nature. We see her literally giving Mr. Disney a hard time (like, how can you make a film without the color red?), yet we completely see where she is coming from. She plays someone so unpleasant, yet we will still be charmed.
Tom Hanks is too much a superstar with a distinct look to completely disappear into another iconic Hollywood figure Walt Disney. However, if you see beyond the actor, Hanks captured the essence of the man Disney - - his joie de vivre, his passion, his optimism.
Colin Farrell plays the flawed father of Travers whose life and death haunted his daughter her whole life. Farrell comes up with a rare, deep and sensitive performance that we have never seen from him before.
Fans of "Mary Poppins" will surely enjoy this look back at the process of how the movie and those wonderful songs were made. This is an good, old-fashioned film that will truly move even the hardest of hearts.