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"…I Have Final Say!" – Saving Mr. Banks on BLU RAY
It’s 1906 in the beautiful and affluent city of Maryborough
in Australia. Travers and Margaret Goff are leaving with their two daughters –
Ginty and Dolly. Like Pied Piper their jokey father is leading his family to a
new home, a new town, a new job in a bank for him and supposedly – a new and
happier life. But the nanny who watches them leave yet another nice home and
wife Margaret with an infant in her arms seems not so sure. And on the train to
a remote place called Allora in Queensland (the last stop on the line) –
Margaret watches with concern as her husband Travers sips slyly from a hip
flask filled with whiskey. So while Ginty may adore her story-telling Dad who
fills her with magic thoughts – she just stands on the back of the train
dreamily watching everything she’s ever known disappear into the distance
because of Daddy’s "ways"…
Now its April 1961 in London and the child Ginty is grown up
into the frightfully prim and prig Pamela L. Travers – author of "Mary
Poppins" – sat alone at her desk meditating (as per the works of George I.
Gurdjieff). A ring at the front door brings in her literary agent Diarmuid Russell
(Ronan Vibert) who informs her that the royalties have dried up and because she
refuses to write anything new - soon even her beloved Bloomsbury home will go
unless she procures money. But still she’s staggeringly prickly. Russell who
has tread lightly long enough rages that Walt Disney - who has pursued her for
twenty years to get the film rights to "Mary Poppins" - has even
agreed to her excessive demands - no animation and full script approval. But
she lives in terror that Hollywood will turn her beloved creation into pap.
But needs must – so - soon she’s on a BOAC jet to Los
Angeles being rude to air hostesses, mothers with children and even the driver
who picks her up at the other end – Ralph (a fabulous show by Paul Giamatti).
"It smells like chlorine and sweat!" she says as Ralph tells her the
scent in the Californian air is Jasmine. He buckles up – it’s going to be a
bumpy ride. Mrs. Travers then throws pears out of her hotel window, growls at
the writers in the Disney studios, whinges about piddly details like numbers on
doors and moustaches and says "No! No! No!" absolutely all of the
time. She’s even truculent in the face of the legendary Walt Disney and his
considerable charm.
“Saving Mr. Banks” uses the technique of running Ginty’s
1906 childhood in Australia alongside her 1961 Californian battle with Disney
and his people – so we slowly get to see why the dreamy hopeful child grows
into a woman who would pen such a prig and proper character. Key to all of this
is her relationship with the man she worshipped – Travers – her father. His
daily battle with drink made his wife attempt suicide in a lake - lost him his
job and health (consumption) – and eventually saw the kids farmed out to a
visiting matriarch - Aunt Ellie. And with her starched almost churchlike
garments, large carpetbag, face-shaped umbrella and 'no nonsense' practicality
in the face of a crisis – Aunt Ellie would of course become the character "Mary
Poppins". But is Mary Poppins about her saving the children - or is it really
about Ginty saving her father through fiction?
The superb cast includes Ruth Wilson as Margaret Travers, BJ
Novak and Jason Schwartzman as the composing brothers Robert and Richard
Sherman and Bradley Whitford as Disney man Don DaGradi. But the movie belongs
to the leads… Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.
There’s a strong body of evidence (“Castaway”, “Charlie
Wilson’s War”, “Cloud Atlas” and “Captain Phillips”) that Tom Hanks may indeed
be up there with De Niro, Al Pacino, Liam Neeson, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour
Hoffman and other greats in terms of being the best actor who’s ever lived. So
it takes serious boots to outshine him as Walt Disney. Up steps such a force of
nature - Engerland’s Emma Thompson – giving her hateful bully lady a beating
heart and gradually unfolding the real reasons for her guarded and prickly
nature. Thompson gives a performance of true brilliance - an embattled woman
who is hurting so deeply that you literally ache for her – cherishing dreams
she cannot have sullied by commerce and gaudiness. The dances between her and
Hanks are fabulous – but even better is her work with Giamatti – the humble
limousine driver who touches her heart and makes her offer up a rare morsel of
kindness when he reveals he has a special needs daughter ("Tell your daughter
she can do anything she puts her mind too…").
Credit also has to go Colin Farrell who is magnificent and
measured as the troubled yet adoring father Travers. The scenes between him and
Annie Rose Buckley as young Ginty are beautiful and immensely moving. Childlike
and wondrous himself – he instils in his little girl the qualities that would
make her such a great writer later on. But he also crippled her mind with
images of innocence betrayed – and a helpless descent into loss that would
haunt her for the rest of her life.
Thomas Newman’s perfectly complimentary music and the
presence of those wonderfully uplifting movie songs that are lingering in the
back of our consciousness give the whole film warmth that’s tangible. But what
really gets you over and over again - is the astonishing and truly immersive
attention to period detail. The look of the bank Travers works in Allora, the
huge wooden house on a hill in the middle of nowhere, the fun-fair day where he
makes a fool of himself in front of his family because he’s drunk… Then there’s the Beverly Hills Hotel where
Pamela stays in 1961 – the Disney gift hampers she encounters in her room –
even the stationery that Giamatti is holding when he meets her at the airport –
all of it is period and absolutely spot on. There’s a scene where Walt takes
Travers to Disneyland in an effort to soften her up – the stalls outside the
theme park gates – the public crowds walking by the attractions and the
carousel that ends up in the movie – huge set pieces - and all of it perfect.
The BLU RAY print is glorious throughout - a big Hollywood
production and the picture quality reflects that. It’s defaulted to 2.34:1 so
there are bars top and bottom – but even extended to Full Aspect – the print is
gorgeous. This film is a real looker on the format.
Audio is English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with English 2.0.
Subtitles are English for The Hard Of Hearing, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish
Extras include "Deleted Scenes", "The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins To The Present” and "Let’s Go Fly A Kite".
Audio is English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with English 2.0.
Subtitles are English for The Hard Of Hearing, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish
Extras include "Deleted Scenes", "The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins To The Present” and "Let’s Go Fly A Kite".
And on it goes to P. L. Travers finally sat in a cinema with
tears rolling down her face as Walt Disney gives her Mister Banks the joy he so
lacked all those years ago in Australia. Even Dick Van Dyke’s awful accent is
forgiven as the joy of the songs and the film transcends everything.
"Wind's in the east…mist coming in…like something is
brewing…about to begin…"
"Saving Mr. Banks" is beautifully crafted cinema – superbly
written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith and Directed by John Lee Hancock.
Do your heart and yourself a favour and spend Tuppence on this quality movie…
