great performances and fun though overly pat story

Rating: 7/10 (29 March 2014)

This highly fictionalized, sentimentalized version of P.L. Travers experience contending with Disney over the adaptation of her Mary Poppins book is quite entertaining. Much of this is due to some excellent performances. The always-excellent Emma Thompson is terrific as the prickly Travers, and Tom Hanks, who I don't always care for, gives a nicely understated performance as Disney. I loved his reaction to Travers trash talking of his movies, in which he looked, just for a moment, like he'd been sucker punched.
There are also excellent performances by Colin Farrell, in flashback, as Travers charming father and Paul Giamatti as a genial driver. I was particularly impressed by how much Giamatti caught the style of a 1960s character.
The script has sharp dialogue and shows the actors off to good advantage, but even before reading the wikipedia article on the movie I knew it had to be pretty far from the truth. Many scenes are just way too pat; it's clearly a work of fiction inspired by a true life story.
You can see some indication of that during the credits, when the movie plays an actual recording of Travers talking to the Disney writers. She's not nearly as hostile as Thompson portrays her, and sounds more like someone collaborating on a project than someone trying to shoot it down.
Travers real-life reaction to the Disney movie of her book would, I suspect, be echoed in her real-life reaction to Saving Mr. Banks. But it is entertaining. It also makes me curious about the original Poppins books; I never even knew the movie was based on a book series!