"Get on the horse, Pam!"

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2013)

People at my showing of SAVING MR. BANKS clapped two different times during the credits. This was unprecedented--it was like being in a theater at the end of a play. First, they clapped for the movie when the credits began; later, they applauded again for Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers, a.k.a. "Pam," a.k.a. Helen Goff, when an extended tape recording from 1961 of her actual voice during the first MARY POPPINS movie planning session\impromptu childhood regression therapy hour concluded. The message of SAVING MR. BANKS is that people who suffer through unhappy childhoods--such as Helen and Walt Disney himself-- produce the best entertainment. Though this film includes extended selections from six hit songs on the MARY POPPINS soundtrack, and portrays Disney with the patience of Job in bringing this character to the big screen, the back-story starring Colin Farrell as Helen's ill-fated alcoholic dad back in Australia all but overshadows the delicate dance between Tom Hanks as Disney and Emma Thompson as Travers more than 50 years later. A spoonful of sugar may make the medicine go down, but making lemonade from lemons is at least as important.