Serious thanks to Hanks' Banks film

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2014)

Whatever SAVING MR. BANKS' ultimate financial fate - which most sources seem to indicate will probably be comfortable - it was doing something close to "land office business" when I saw it New Year's Day afternoon on 42nd Street with a very youngish mixed crowd who almost all stayed well into the credit crawl. The very clever gimmick of having the original tape of the actual Mrs. Travers at the reading of the script with the other authors - which was dramatized in the film itself - played over the crawl made them almost impossible to walk out on.
The film itself was not, IMHO, a major work of art: they pretty much give away the main element the audience should be figuring out in the film's title and and I have read that a number of the strict historical details are seriously distorted (the cynical will always insist that there was never any real chance of P.J. Travers' withholding the film rights that Disney wanted to her most famous work since she needed the money) but the broad strokes - including that one - are made most believably credible and three perfectly lovely performances from Emma Thompson, Collin Farrell and Tom Hanks (not to mention Paul Giamatti's utterly charming driver, two women in Disney's office and the boys playing the Sherman Brothers - especially B. J. Novak) make it a very enjoyable outing.
For me however, and I suspect many of my age, the greatest reason for seeing the film is the rehabilitation (humanization) of Walt Disney's personal image and reputation after all that came out after we grew up about how right wing the man was in his personal/political life. The film speaks to his artistic legacy and it is as charming as the legacy is important. I'd much rather remember the founder of the Mouse House this way than the way I had come to think of him - and I rather doubt that Mrs. Travers would have serious objections either.
No-one will deny that the lady reserved the right to formally/officially dislike the Disney MARY POPPINS the way GBS rejected THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER operetta based on his ARMS AND THE MAN, but you will want to see the publicity photos of Travers with Disney and the Sherman Brothers at the end of the film which somewhat soften the image.