Westside Steve Posted January 11, 2014 Report Share Posted January 11, 2014 Saving Mr. Banks Walt Disney Pictures PG 13 120 min Well gang it's that time of year again. The Oscar nominations will be out shortly and the prognosticators are already making guesses as to what they may be. So if you will indulge me I will try to catch as many as possible before the big day. I'm guessing SAVING MR BANKS will get a Best Picture nomination if for no other reason than the star power at the top of the cast, two multiple Academy Award winners in Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson. According to what they claim is the true story, for years Walt Disney (Hanks) had personally been trying to obtain the rights to Mrs. P.L.Travers’ Mary Poppins with very little luck and even less response from the author. As time goes by, however, her financial situation as well as the urging of Disney and her agent will prompt her to take a chance on allowing her famous character to make her way to the silver screen. But there is a caveat. Blank wants final control and insists on being present for the screenwriting and production. From the instant Travers steps off the plane in California she apparently hates everything about the United States the movie studio and the production team. Everyone except her chauffeur Ralph played by the versatile Paul Giamatti . From that point there are two plot devices that make up the film. First a series of disagreements with the writers and Disney about various aspects of the film which all seem to result in the writer having a change of heart. The other involves flashbacks to her native Australia and small vignettes of her melancholy childhood with her good natured but dysfunctional father (Colin Farrell) . His life is plagued by alcoholism and tuberculosis and I found these flashbacks much more interesting than the cookie cutter back and forth with studio people. Thompson is in rare form as the priggish missus Travers and Hanks isn't bad as Walt Disney. He's not great either in my opinion because once again he plays himself and I know what Walt Disney looks and sounds like. Actually there is hey very nice soliloquy near the end of the film even though I credit that with good writing. SAVING MR BANKS becomes decidedly more substantial in the last third as the flashbacks explain the situation. B- WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted January 13, 2014 Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Is there any character called Mr Banks at all? Because I couldn't figure out to whom the title refers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted January 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Mr Banks is the father character in the Mary Poppins book. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted January 13, 2014 Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Mr Banks is the father character in the Mary Poppins book. WSS OK. Haven't seen the film in probably 20 years and never read the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted January 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Yeah that's true, did you see the movie? The whole hook is that Mr Banks was based on her father. And she came to grips with his life by the end of the film. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Yeah that's true, did you see the movie? The whole hook is that Mr Banks was based on her father. And she came to grips with his life by the end of the film. WSS Haven't seen this one yet but I probably will. Seen mary poppins once, a long time ago. The songs stuck, but the plot did not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted April 14, 2014 Report Share Posted April 14, 2014 Another long haul holiday, another 6 or 7 new films that I watched. This was one of them, and I really enjoyed it. Not necessarily worth watching again, and no great plot twists, but generally just a solid script and well acted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miktoxic Posted April 17, 2014 Report Share Posted April 17, 2014 walt disney was a genious yet one of the most ingenious paranoid freaks ever to grace a brand as he did. if you've never watched an war propaganda film with cartoon characters you should check them out on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8bCuNiJ-NI&list=PLD28E5FC302E380CC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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