Search This Blog

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

A surprisingly entertaining movie that tells the story about Walt Disney's 20 year pursuit to get the rights to make a movie of P. L. Travers' classic childrens book, 'Mary Poppins".  Disney (played by Tom Hanks) tries to woo the extremely difficult author (played by Emma Thompson) into allowing him to make his movie.  She needs money, which is the only reason that she would even consider giving up her precious story to a man she considers to be the purveyer of candy coated treacle, someone whose life work is unsubstantial.  Even with her reduced circunstances, she wants complete control of the movie.  Despite a wonderful creative team who work diligently and patiently with her, she is impossible and leaves unswayed.

The movie moves between her current life and her childhood in rural Australia, where she idolozed her story telling father who died young of a combination of alcoholism and tuberculosis.  Her aunt, who swooped in at the end of his life to attempt to fix everything, but failed.  As Disney tries to figure out why she won't let go of her story, the viewer gets a clear idea of what the issues are--and we also know that the film was ultimately made.  Fun movie with a bevy of good actors.

No comments:

Post a Comment