An adorable film about unadorable characters

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2013)

When a movie tells a behind the scenes story, there is inherent excitement about finding out "the truth". Saving Mr. Banks is all about this and yet there is a definite journey and process to vet this out both in the story and in story telling. The journey here is both thematic and touching and will stay with you after you see the movie. There is a lots of humor (love the behind the creative screen writing/pitching schmaltz) and drama (mostly in our writers childhood flashbacks), but it is the quiet mix that blends the P.L Travers character (Emma Thompson) and Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) that is at the heart of the movie experience. Both are a bit over-honed in on one each of their characters' element: Thompson with the nervous nit-picking and Hanks with his Father Flanagan appeal. In reality, showing the Marry Poppins author as more secretive and Disney as more self absorbed before their resolution could have certainly added more drama but lessened any child appeal... and a movie about Disney, even if not a Disney film, has to appeal to our littles, so I'll cede to the masses.