Picking The Bones.

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2015)

Well, did Walt Disney (Hanks) have a tough time convincing Mrs. Travers (Thompson) that she should allow him to turn her book, "Mary Poppins", into a musical, or what.
Emma Thompson is one cranky, uptight, insulting lady. The actress isn't bad looking in any way but make up has done a splendid job of deglamorizing her -- those close-cut curls, that thin red scar of a frowning mouth. I don't know why old Walt flew her from England to Anaheim in the first place. Nobody would get within ten feet of her because it might be catching. What a snot she is.
Walt, on the other hand, is all Middle America. (Everybody calls him "Walt", never "Mister Disney.") He certainly knows how to please people. I always enjoy rides on his Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. Sometimes I get a kick out of The Flight of Mister Toad or whatever it is, but I don't like to admit it. Walt always has a big smile. He's full of Mid-Western common sense. He's willing to give a little. And Mrs. Travers calls Disneyland a "big money-printing machine." That's the kind of lady SHE is.
She fights him all the way, far beyond the point at which we simple humans would have given up. But he woos her, flying to England after she flees Los Angeles, and doing a psychodynamic number of her. Look, Mrs. Travers, both of us have had difficult and sometimes tragic childhoods, but there's no reason to go on living out that tragedy. You've created a story that brightens peoples' lives and I'm a story teller. You see, we have a lot in common. She's seduced.
Both the principals handle their roles with professional aplomb. Emma Thompson in particular is a fine actress. But the director, John Lee Hancock, has over-directed some of the supporting cast. If they show surprise, they don't do it the way you and I would. Instead, their jaws must practically drop to the floor.
There are multiple flashbacks to Mrs. Travers' life as a young girl in Australia. The pattern of dysfunction was cribbed from "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" -- the sober, practical mother; the cheerful, fantasizing, drunken father.
The ultimate impression a viewer is liable to get is that the good folks who greenlighted this thought, "Mary Poppins" was a terrific hit and made a fortune. We can't make a sequel, but let's make a movie about how the movie came to be made. It will be a salubrious blend of comedy and tear-jerker. Everyone who loved "Mary Poppins" will come to see it. There must be some of the original audience left. We can pick over the bones of the carcass." I thought it was too long and that the protracted flashbacks were designed to manipulate the audience. The point could have been made in less than half the time.
Never having been a fan of "Mary Poppins" -- never even having seen it -- I can only guess what the appeal is for devotées of the original. Massive.