Unduly overlooked and well worth the effort

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2014)

I, as an enormous fan of the 1964 film of Mary Poppins probably came into this movie with higher expectations than most. I was not disappointed in any way.
I feel that both the film, and the two leads' performances have been for the most part ignored by many of the Film boards (possibly due to the number of great films made in the past year, but also could be an unwanted by-product of being a 'Disney' film). Emma Thompson was phenomenal and Tom Hanks was also very good. I enjoyed many of the supporting performances too - Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman and Colin Farrell just to name a few. The soundtrack had a great blend between songs from the movie and new score. The flashbacks and present-day scenes were skilfully woven together, and neither story-line dominated too much.
Another delightful side-effect of this movie is a new layer when watching Mary Poppins. It was particularly amusing to see what demands of Travers' had been ignored! If you are a fan of the original film, you are almost guaranteed to enjoy this one. If not, you will probably still enjoy this film, but not to the same extent.
Highly recommended.