Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Walt Disney Pictures

Every year in cinema needs a Saving Mr. Banks. Coincidentally, the director of this film also directed The Blind Side which I would call the Saving Mr. Banks of 2009. Each year there's a film like this one starring a famous actor or two that is unabashedly sentimental if not overly melodramatic. The message is clear, the turns in the plot foreseeable, and the kleenex flows freely in theaters across the nation.

Still, I maintain that every year needs a Saving Mr. Banks. As good and challenging as movies like 12 Years a Slave and others can be to our senses, psychology, and understanding of different sides of human nature, reality, etc., you still need a break from them now and then. And when you're in the thick of awards season and an onslaught of such challenging films, Saving Mr. Banks is exactly what you need to enjoy some old fashioned sentimentality and film-making.

Walt Disney Pictures

Emma Thompson plays P.L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins series who Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) is determined to have hand over the rights to bring Poppins to the big screen and make her "fly off the pages" of her books as Disney says in the film. The problem is that Ms. Travers is not amused by the songs, animation, and everything else Disney, writer Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), and composers Robert (B.J. Novak) and Richard (Jason Schwartzman) Sherman have in mind. In essence, Ms. Travers' attitude and claim to her story and characters is the same as the character of Mr. Banks in the old Disney film itself. She seems determined to remain disagreeable. And as the film continually inserts flashbacks to Travers' childhood with her troubled father, Travers Goff (Colin Farrell), we start to understand why Travers is the way she is and why she can't let go of Mary Poppins. 

Without giving more of the story away, I will say that Saving Mr. Banks definitely lacks in subtlety. The more we come to understand of Travers' past and her disagreements with the film, the more predictable each turn of events becomes culminating with Disney's conversation with Travers towards the end that basically explains everything this film's story stands for analogically. Still, this is not a bad thing. After all, Gravity in all of its grandeur holds some of the most obvious metaphors of the year (literally, gravity is a huge metaphor, just think about it). Saving Mr. Banks' creators hold your hand through making all of the connections and make sure you understand everything.

But like I said, this isn't a bad thing. It's just old fashioned. And as I said before, in the height of award season, one comes to expect hard, confusing movies, and Saving Mr. Banks functions as a breath of fresh air. It moves steadily along and keeps your attention thanks to the editing of the flashbacks into the story, and it is as straightforward as can be. Thompson and Hanks do a fine job in the lead roles. Thompson is always especially good in whatever role she plays. However, I was particularly impressed by Farrell's part as Travers' father as well. Paul Giamatti as Travers' driver, Ralph, is also sweet and endearing as only Giamatti can be. And of course, die-hard Disney fans will be most pleased by the sequence at Disneyland as well as the scenes where the Sherman brothers perform different songs from Mary Poppins on the piano.

Walt Disney Pictures

In the end, Saving Mr. Banks is almost everything I expected. Travers' back-story does hold some unexpectedly dark and sad material for a movie marketed as such light, family-friendly fair. Still, this only goes to strengthen its worth. So while it may not offer any challenging notions or themes to sort out, Saving Mr. Banks is ultimately a nostalgic, sentimental look at how creating movies and stories can help one sort out and potentially solve deep issues and hurts in life. I expect Thompson will be nominated for her performance, but Hanks will garner his nomination through his role in Captain Phillips instead. Other than that, I don't expect it to receive many if any more nominations, but it is still quite a charming film over all.