SAVING MR. BANKS (John Lee Hancock, 2013) ***

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2014)

Five-time Oscar winner MARY POPPINS (1964) remains Walt Disney's most popular and critically-acclaimed of all his live action films and this latest such entry from the same stable should serve as an eye-opener to its legion of fans on how films were made back in the day and a delightful nostalgia trip for seasoned film buffs. Emma Thompson is perfectly cast as the beloved character's stubborn literary creator P.L. Travers who is ever so reluctant (a 20-year struggle, in fact!) to sell the film rights to animation mogul Disney (Tom Hanks – who despite being 10 years too young for the role – acquits himself well).
The vivid recreation of the Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland and the entertaining tit-for-tat discussions between Travers, co-screenwriter Don DaGradi, songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman and Disney himself are countered (and, ultimately, bogged down) by dismal flashbacks set in the Australian outback in which we see Travers' childhood completely under the influence of her boozing dreamer of a banker father (Colin Farrell) – which is what the odd choice of title for the film itself is all about. The over-reliance on the Musical's admittedly catchy songs does get repetitive after a while and, as expected, a certain amount of whitewashing of the reportedly unsavory main characters was involved.
Having said that, the film's two best sequences for me were when Travers' beleaguered chauffeur (Paul Giamatti) reveals to her that his daily weather reporting to his passenger – which bugged her no end – stemmed from the fact that it affected his "handicapped" daughter's mobility; and towards the very end when Disney unexpectedly flies to London (in an 11th hour attempt to get a still defiant Travers to sign) and confesses to her that his own relationship with his newspaper editor father was no less fraught. I also liked the idea that the end credits not only display photographs of the protagonists from the era depicted (which only serves to highlight the fact that none of the actors employed really resemble them!) but the voice of Travers is also heard via recordings she herself insisted upon of the entire consultation process!