Saving Mr. Banks

The ad campaign for Saving Mr. Banks is selling the film as a behind the scenes docu-drama about the tribulations that Walt Disney (portrayed quite well by Tom Hanks) went through in acquiring the rights to film Mary Poppins from its fiercely protective author P.L. Travers (an equally good Emma Thompson).  And while that certainly is the main thrust of the film, there is a whole other story and star that the ads only hint at.  This is bizarre, as not only is this other story the heart of the film itself, but the performance that has largely remained hidden in publicity is the best one in the film.

That performance belongs to Colin Farrell, who has seldom been as good as he is here.  He appears in flashbacks set in early 20th Century Australia, as the father of the woman who would go on to write the Mary Poppins stories.  He is Travers Goff, and as Farrell portrays him, he was a man with great imagination and love, but little knowledge of how to get ahead in the world.  He was also addicted to drinking, which ultimately proved to be his downfall.  In the series of flashbacks (which routinely break up the main story), we see how he moved his family out to a battered down home as he tried to make his fortune.  For his young daughter, Ginty (Annie Rose Buckley), it's a great adventure.  His wife (Ruth Wilson) suffered in silence for the sake of the children, but grew increasingly concerned as her husband's performance at work suffered, and his dependence on alcohol became stronger.

Through these flashbacks, we learn how young Ginty (who would go by the name of P.L. Travers as an adult, in honor of her father's name) wrote her stories not only loosely based on her own experiences as a child, but also as a way to keep her father's memory and imagination alive.  That is why, in 1961 as the film and the main storyline begins, we find a middle-aged P.L. Travers dreading an upcoming flight to Los Angeles to possibly negotiate a film deal for her books.  We learn that Walt Disney has been trying to buy the rights to her stories for some 20 years, ever since he was introduced to the books by his young daughters.  After decades of refusing every offer Disney has sent her way, we now find Mrs. Travers a woman on the verge of defeat.  She has not written any new material in years, and her residuals from book sales have dried up.  The best, and seemingly only, chance for her to make some money is to sign over the rights for a movie.

But, as we learn, she may be on the verge of defeat, but she is not going down easily.  She flies out to L.A. pretty much with the intention to turn Mr. Disney down, and to make the negotiation process as difficult as possible for the filmmakers who have to work with her.  These include the screenwriter, Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), and the in-house studio music composers, Robert (B.J. Novak) and Richard (Jason Schwartzman) Sherman.  (The real life Richard Sherman served as a consultant during the shooting of this film.) Not only does Mrs. Travers insist on script approval, but she also makes outrageous demands, such as not wanting the color red to appear anywhere in the film, and becomes upset when the the filmmakers show her drawings of the home the main characters live in, and they do not match her personal vision of what the home should look like.  During the process of negotiations, Travers finds herself haunted by her own childhood memories, as exploring the very essence of her characters and where they came from creatively forces her to confront some personal demons concerning her father.  As for Walt Disney, he gradually learns just why the author is so attached and protective of her stories, the role they have played in her life, and begins his attempts to convince her that he will honor her characters and her stories in his film.

The two narratives that run throughout Saving Mr. Banks are both good enough to stand out on their own as an individual feature, and thanks to a running time of just over two hours, both stories feel fleshed out, effective, and dramatically strong.  And while the film does deal with some heavy subject matter such as alcoholism and a suicide attempt at one point, the tone is kept mostly at an upbeat and entertaining level, without losing any of the seriousness of the situation.  It's a difficult balancing act to pull off, but director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side), and screenwriters Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, manage to find the right approach that is sweet and uplifting, but doesn't feel like the harsher edges of the story being told haven't been sanded off too much.  Sure, the highly publicized account of how Mrs. Travers pretty much shunned Disney after the film was released has pretty much been skipped over, but this still feels like a mostly factual and accurate account of the working relationship these two had in the early stages of the classic film's development. 

And while I have already signaled out Colin Farrell's charming and heartbreaking performance, the rest of the cast of also equally worthy of mention.  While Tom Hanks doesn't look much like the real Walt Disney, he has the mannerisms and the essence of the man down.  Emma Thompson plays Mrs. Travers not as a cranky woman with a heart of gold, but rather as a woman who is fiercely protective of her work, as most artists are.  She doesn't try to play up our sympathies, and instead comes across as a natural character who evolves in an intelligent way during the course of the story.  I also greatly admired the music score by Thomas Newman, and how it incorporates different Disney tunes in subtle ways.  This is a first-rate production in just about every aspect, right down to the end credits, which feature some of the fascinating actual recordings left behind with conversations between the real life Mrs. Travers and the filmmakers.

Naturally, Saving Mr. Banks will appeal the most to fans of the Mary Poppins film musical, but I think the added family drama provided by the flashback story will ensure that just about anyone who watches it can take something away from the movie.  This is a wonderful film - charming, dramatic, and loyal to the story it is trying to tell.  While the idea of a behind the scenes story of a Disney film that's being released by the Disney Studio itself may sound like a guaranteed fluff piece, it's amazing just how effective, smart, and informative this movie turned out to be.

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