File Under Guilty Pleasures

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2014)

It may seem a slight concept--Walt Disney and author P.L. Travers reluctantly collaborate on an adaptation of her "Mary Poppins" series--but in the hands of director John Lee Hancock (the criminally under-appreciated "The Rookie"), there's a grace and charm that makes for an enjoyably nostalgic experience, even if the tears generated from the script by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith aren't always earned honestly. The film cross-cuts between the contentious effort to adapt Travers' work and her Australian childhood, where she struggles to save her parents' marriage and, in particular, her father's romantic idealism, which has been crushed by alcoholism. (Her father is played by a fine Colin Farrell.) This earnest effort to "explain" (read: psychoanalyze) Travers' soured worldview seems labored and determined and it drags the film's rhythms down; but it helps that Hancock has Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks as the leads--both turn in the entertaining performances one would hope for, which is to say well-suited to their scenery-chomping proclivities. It's a very professional piece of filmmaking, easy to watch and suitable for filing under Guilty Pleasures.