5.0 Stars
Saving Mr. Banks from Walt Disney Pictures is the story of how Australian born author Pamela Lyndon "P. L." Travers (Emma Thompson) reluctantly agreed to allow Walt Disney (Tom Hanks)
turn her best selling stories into a Hollywood movie. We are all
familiar with the popular Disney movie entitled Mary Poppins released in
1964, but the film was based on a series of books written by Travers in
the 1930's in London. Despite her less than modest upbringings,
Travers found quite a bit of success from her books. This film takes
place at an important crossroads: Walt Disney has expressed interest in
turning her books into a full length feature film right at the same time
her funds from the book sales (which isn't selling any more) are
completely gone. Travers is in danger of losing her house and has no
money left which is the only reason she agrees to even consider allowing
her stories to be made into a movie.
The first rule in writing is simply to write. The second rule, often debated as being the first, is that there are no rules. That rule is usually followed with a series of "guidelines" for an aspiring author. But the best, yet often most misinterpreted rule, is to write what you know. Pamela Travers (born Helen Goff and later changed her name after her father Travers Goff, played by Colin Farrell) never had a nanny fly in from the clouds with a talking parrot umbrella. But, in 1906, that's what it felt like to a little girl who was losing her father, her hero, when her aunt came to their shack of a house to care for them. By the same token, Walt Disney never knew a talking mouse. But, as a boy of 8 when his father made him and his older brother Roy walk morning and night in the snow delivering papers for his father's company else they felt the scorn of the buckle on his belt, that mouse was a good and dear friend to young Walt. These were escapes, these were creations that stemmed from emotions that came to life either through written word, through drawings, or through movies that stirred common emotions in their audiences.
A creator's greatest fear is not being criticized or told their creation is no good. A true creator is not looking for praise, but a shared experience. Criticism is actually good because it means people are talking about what you wrote or made. No, a creator's greatest fears are that they will have no one to share their creation with, no audience to laugh or cry or think or become enraged or frightened. A creator is also afraid that their work might be altered, corrupted, misrepresented and no longer true. And that was Travers' biggest fear. She didn't want Disney taking her family, her memories, her emotions and turning them into one of his cartoons. Confused, Walt comments that she is talking about a "flying nanny with a talking umbrella" sent to save the children. Her worst fears are realized when she rebuts saying, "You think Mary Poppins came to save the children?"
Saving Mr. Banks is the story of two stubborn, nearly immovable forces posing as two people looking to find a common ground. Despite their best efforts, they actually do. It takes Walt a while to understand the personal attachment Travers has to the books and their characters. When it hits him, he realizes how close to home her stories really are. It's then he is able to convince her that this story needs to be told and that he is the perfect one to tell it. If you can set aside that this isn't a completely historical document, but rather based on the true events that transpired, if you have ever written or drawn or created or sang or built anything that came from your heart, this movie will entertain you and delight you and touch you as it did me.
And perhaps that's why I gave this a perfect 5 star rating. I cannot wait to own this movie. As a writer, I also feel the sadness that my creations may never be shared with the world. I also fear that if my creations do take flight, someday they may be twisted and bastardized to lose their true feeling that prompted their inception. There are several touching scenes in the movie. The limousine driver Ralph (Paul Giamatti) has a wonderful scene with Travers on the lawn outside the Disney Studios. The scene in which the musical geniuses the Sherman brothers (B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman) finally propose a song that meets Travers' approval will almost have you applauding. But for me, the scene that made me tear up the most, was the escort Travers received into the theatre at the premiere of Mary Poppins. She was misunderstood to be a cold and unfeeling woman and that couldn't be further from the truth. She had no family that would notice she was gone, no true friends (even envied those who gathered in the bar in the lobby of her Beverly Hills Hotel), and barely any human contact outside of her publisher and her maid. Yet she spoke of emotions and life experiences that touched so many. Though they didn't know the story, they knew the feelings. And once Walt identified with those feelings, he knew he could tell the story.
I highly recommend this movie. I'm sure this movie won't get the highest marks from everyone who watches it, but it moved me in such a way that I wouldn't feel right giving it any other rating. So, what movie will be on my mind next? We shall see.
