Runtime: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: John Lee Hancock
Quick Impressions:
I love Disneyland. I grew up there.
Maybe that sounds crazy, but I went to thirteen different schools. We moved just about every year. If we ever spent over a year in just one place, we made up for it the next year by living in two or three different locations. (Lest you think I am exaggerating, in 1992 alone I lived in 1) Corpus Christi, 2) Chattanooga, and 3) Dallas.)
Anyway about as often as we moved, we also went to Disneyland. (This wasn’t a reward for moving, just a happy coincidence.)
So while I totally understand when some people roll their eyes at Disneyland and dismiss it as an overpriced tourist trap, a gaudy, borderline obscene celebration of materialist excess and juvenile debauchery, for me, it’s a wonderful, magical place full of happy memories of time spent with my family.
Every time I go there, I remember all the times I’ve been before (with all the various members of my far-flung family). When I take my kids to Disneyland, I’m also there with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins (many of them now deceased, others living so far away I hardly ever see them).
Maybe like me, you love Disneyland. Maybe like others, you find it a disgusting nightmare of consumerism and spoiled children and commercialism run amok, and you’d rather die than ever set foot there. It’s been my experience that most people in the United States today fall firmly into one camp or the other. What’s brilliant about Saving Mr. Banks is that (to a degree) it validates both viewpoints and offers magical entertainment for both the misty-eyed Walt Disneyes and the maudlin Mrs. Traverses among us.
All the TV spots showing scenes set in Disneyland definitely coaxed me to take my entire family (including my sister and her boyfriend) to see Saving Mr. Banks this weekend. I would have gone, anyway, of course, because I’m obsessed with the Academy Awards, but when I saw Disneyland in the previews, I knew the entire family would be on board.
Going in, I’d heard a lot of rave reviews of the central performances. There’s copious Oscar buzz for Emma Thompson and quite a bit for Tom Hanks. So even though director John Lee Hancock’s previous film The Blind Side walks a very fine line between moving and manipulative (and sometimes slips a bit), I thought Saving Mr. Banks would probably be an excellent family film.
But nothing prepared me for all the crying. Drink a lot of water before this seeing this movie. Trust me. You’re going to need it to stay hydrated.
Seriously, it’s starting to feel like déjà vu all over again! I go to the movies. I spend two hours crying. I leave with a swelling heart, thinking to myself, Well, s/he’s a lock for an Oscar nomination!
How often am I going to repeat this experience? Good thing the year’s almost over! If 2013 went on any longer, they’d have to settle the Academy Awards Hunger Games style.
This fall has given us some of most delicious tear-jerkers ever. Off the top of my head, I think of Nebraska, The Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, and now Saving Mr. Banks. (And I’m not even counting the movies that only made me cry sometimes.) Honestly, my reactions are getting progressively more intense. I remember walking out of Philomena thinking, Good grief! I’ve never cried so long and so hard in my entire life!
Well now I’ve done it twice! It’s impossible to watch Saving Mr. Banks without tearing up at some point. None of us could manage it for sure. And the best part is, the movie doesn’t really feel manipulative. The longer it goes on, the better and better it gets thanks to fantastic performances by Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, and the entire supporting cast.
The Good:
One fantastic thing about the movie you wouldn’t necessarily guess from its previews is its rich and fantastic supporting cast. Yes Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks deserve Oscar nominations, but they’re not the only ones doing wonderful work here.
Paul Giamatti gives what is probably my favorite performance of his career. I’m sure at this point lots of people are raving, “What are you talking about? Paul Giamatti is a fantastic actor, and he’s great in everything.” You’ll get no arguments from me there, but often I find the types of characters he tends to play off-putting or hard to love. This is neither his largest role nor his most difficult, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s wonderful as Ralph, a funny, kind, bright genuine character I wasn’t even expecting. While Tom Hanks is the screen partner most likely to get a supporting actor nomination, the scenes Thompson with Giamatti touched me deeply and were among my favorites in the film. What makes them good is the spark of human connection between the characters. With the wrong actors playing the roles, this wouldn’t come across at all, and their moving scenes would become instead syrupy and awful.
B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman also stand out. I was about to say that I particularly liked Schwartzman, and then to add that I also particularly liked Novak. Then I realized that you can’t single out one over the other if you’re planning to do that for both. Still both actors are superb as the Sherman brothers whether they’re performing in concert or taking a moment to light up the screen individually. It helps, of course, that the real life Sherman brothers wrote such delightful music. Watching them at work behind the piano made me want to come home and pop in the DVD of Mary Poppins (or at least play the soundtrack).
Rounding out the Hollywood cast, Bradley Whitford, Kathy Baker, and especially Melanie Paxson are good in their roles as well.
But the real standouts of the supporting cast are the actors playing the Goff family in all of Travers’s tormented flashbacks. Playing Ginty, young Annie Rose Buckley has a captivating screen presence and brings a winning and innocent intensity to the role. Ruth Wilson doesn’t get too many lines as Margaret, but she certainly makes something of the part. Her “lake” scene is absolutely riveting, and I’m also fond of her reaction to her husband’s big speech. Meanwhile in a less crowded year, Colin Farrell might well find himself nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his fascinating, nuanced portrayal of the author’s charming but tormented father, Travers Goff. It will never happen this year, but that doesn’t change the fact that Farrell gives a fantastic performance.
Another of the movie’s strengths is the music. Not only does it benefit from Thomas Newman’s lovely score, but it also uses the previous work of the Sherman brothers to its greatest advantage. Mary Poppins has wonderful music. Besides the great honor of being one of my husband’s favorite songs, “Chim Chim Chiree” won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1964, and I love the almost eerie way Saving Mr. Banks incorporates it.
The movie also looks good with top-notch cinematography and set design, costuming, and make-up that don’t go overboard. Instead of trying to create a Stepford Hanks (“Like those robots in Disneyland!!!!!”) by giving the actor an animatronic face, they mostly just encourage him to find his inner Walt. And I think Thompson’s costuming and make-up is perfect. Most of us aren’t well acquainted with the appearance of P.L. Travers, and of course, this helps. But the look that she adopts fits the character perfectly.
On the way home, my mother remarked, “Emma Thompson certainly did look older than in Love Actually.”
“Well, we’ve all gotten older since Love Actually,” I said. “And besides, she’s playing an older character. I’m not sure if they have her made up to look older or not.” I think the austerity of her hairstyle, dress, and manner does most of the work. “Besides,” I said, “Emma Thompson has aged like everyone else. By now she must be about…”
“Seventy,” my dad chimed in.
“Seventy!” I cried in shock. “I was going to say fifty!” Thinking back to Henry V, I sort of guestimated, “Don’t you think she must be about fifty-five?”
“Oh no,” Dad replied, entirely serious. “She’s definitely in her early seventies.”
After that I looked it up. She’s 54. (And despite what my parents will tell you, even in her primly dressed P.L. Travers garb, she looks 54—not 70! Good grief, going by appearance, I would have believed late forties!)
The movie’s also got a great script. As is always the case with sentimental material, it at times hovers perilously close to the precipice, poised to fall down into sugar-coated, emotionally manipulative, feel good nonsense. But thankfully, that never really happens.
Best Scene:
Probably the most perfect scene in the entire movie is the cathartic rush (from the characters and the audience) that accompanies the dance to “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.” The whole movie has been building to this spectacularly invigorating moment of release, and when it comes, even the audience can’t help but get swept up in the moment.
Funniest Scene:
My daughter (about to turn five) laughed out loud the whole time Travers was first exploring her hotel room. At the end of the scene—after, literally, giggling non-stop through its entirety—she sighed, “Good grief! She doesn’t even have any kids with her! What is he thinking?” After that, any time Emma Thompson widened her eyes in outrage, my daughter took it as a cue to giggle. (For the most part, she correctly identified humorous moments this way, though once near the end she laughed at a fairly serious moment.)
Personally I absolutely adore the moment when Travers realizes that Walt wants to take her to Disneyland. The expression of absolute horror that crosses her face as she understands where the conversation is headed is absolutely priceless. I haven’t seen a look of such pure horror since Tippi Hedron opened the attic door in The Birds. Thompson should get an Oscar nomination for that alone.
Best Scene Visually:
What Disney fan can resist the image of Walt himself welcoming his guest into the Magic Kingdom with open arms? As someone who has always been utterly enchanted with Disneyland, I enjoyed seeing all the scenes shot there, particularly the sequence on the carousel. That was my daughter’s favorite ride the first time she went. By all appearances, they are actually filming on location. I watched carefully to see how the film would handle the changes in Fantasyland, and apparently the favored method was to show as little background scenery as possible. We see the carousel from basically one angle. Behind it, we focus on Snow White’s Scary Adventures, one of the park’s original attractions. The tree near the entrance of the ride is so large that I assume they’re filming the scene in the park today and making minimal cosmetic changes. The whole Disneyland sequence is tons of fun to watch.
Another visually rewarding experience is charting the development of Travers’s relationship with Mickey Mouse.
Best Action Sequence:
About ten minutes into the film, one question started to nag me. “What on earth makes this movie rated PG-13?” Surely it’s not the shock of hearing a much abused Walt Disney sigh in befuddlement, “Damn!” But there wasn’t much other swearing, and I couldn’t imagine a graphic sex scene or a machine gun battle going on behind the scenes of Mary Poppins.
Then a little over halfway through, Ruth Wilson popped into her daughter’s bedroom for a late night chat, and I suddenly got my answer. “Aha!” I thought as I watched the moment unfold. “There it is. Remember, parents, you were strongly cautioned.”
Now I’m sure the cumulative effect of the distress of Travers Goff also contributes to the film’s rating, but I don’t think you could put a Virginia Woolfy scene like this in a family movie and expect a rating any milder than PG-13. Even though the scene doesn’t become as dark as its initial potential suggests, the idea of what could happen is still more than enough to disturb children (or at any rate to disturb parents who will be more attuned to what’s actually happening than most children and always worry about their children). This is also one of the most powerful moments in the film. Both Ruth Wilson and young Annie Rose Buckley play the scene with an eerie brilliance. For me, it resonated even more than the later scene with the pears (maybe because we can see that one coming from a mile away, but it’s impossible to know how this one will end).
Most Oscar Worthy Moment (Emma Thompson):
Emma Thompson definitely deserves a Best Actress nomination for her work in Saving Mr. Banks, and I can’t imagine that she won’t get it.
She’s phenomenal in all of her scenes, often serving up delicious comedy to the audience through a character who experiences these amusing moments as an intensely personal tragedy. That’s difficult work, but she nails this tricky role from her first scene, and as someone (whose name I can’t recall) once said, “Well begun is half done.”
Thompson has so many fantastic, emotionally resonant moments throughout the film. If forced to pick just one, I’d say her strongest scene is when she throws a fit about why they’ve made Mr. Banks so cruel. (This is clearly revelatory for the other characters and leads to a lovely moment with her driver that I like even better.)
Most Oscar Worthy Moment (Tom Hanks):
The obvious Oscar clip for Hanks is Disney’s final face-to-face heart-to-heart with Travers over a pot of doctored tea. I won’t spoil the scene, but it would make a brilliant Oscar clip for her, too. Both are equally good in the scene, and that’s why it’s getting all the Oscar buzz, I’m sure.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment (Colin Farrell):
Don’t think I’m an idiot. I know Colin Farrell won’t get an Oscar nomination for this. There’s absolutely no way. There’s too much competition (even internal competition). But I think Farrell is a talented actor whose fine work often gets overlooked when it comes to giving out awards. I’ve always liked him. He’s very good at evoking an emotional response from the audience. (For example, as I watched Oliver Stone’s Alexander in the theater, I thought, Oh no, poor Colin Farrell. His career was going so well till now! Of course, I felt just as much pity rest of the talented cast forced to appear in such a trainwreck. And yet here I am plugging both Farrell and Jared Leto for Supporting Actor nominations this year, so no harm done, I guess.)
More than any one scene, the cumulative effect of the flashbacks of Travers Goff’s touching and troubling relationship with his daughter shows what compelling pathos Farrell brings to the role. The most stunning aspects of his performance are revealed through juxtaposition of his scenes. One minute, he’s manically cheerful, the next, he’s a broken, despairing mess. I’m particularly fond of the scene of Ginty laying eggs and the moment in the bank with his boss. Young Annie Rose Buckley is very talented, too.
The Negatives:
Slow is not the right word for this, but it gets better as it goes. You have to watch the whole thing to be fully taken in, and I get the feeling that some people will be a harder sell than others. If Disney in general rubs you the wrong way, then you’ll have to overcome your own skepticism to find this magical. I have faith that as you listen to the songs of the Sherman brothers and contemplate the tragedy of the flashback sequences, you will be won over. (I mean, it worked for P.L. Travers.) That’s the brilliant thing about the film, really. Even if you can’t embrace the magic of Disney, you can scoff at it right along with the witty Travers. (She may be prickly, but she’s certainly not the first person to find Hollywood fake, Americans wasteful, and Disney gaudy.)
Still some people might not like this kind of movie. The thing is, if you’re not swept away by the magic, then it’s pretty hard not to notice that Disney has capitalized on this same material twice. I mean, even I noticed that. P.L. Travers signed away the rights, and Disney’s gotten two trips to the Oscars out of it. (I mean, do you know how often live action Disney movies get Oscar attention? Let me put it this way. Have you seen any live action Disney movies? That should give you a rough idea. I’m not bashing them. Hayley Mills did win a special Oscar for Pollyanna and thoroughly deserved it, and while certainly not Oscar bait, any movie starring Dean Jones possesses a wholesome, infinitely rewatchable charm. I’m also a huge fan of the original Freaky Friday. But usually, it’s animation that gets Disney awards attention, and there’s never anybody asking, “Why were Christina Ricci and Doug E. Doug snubbed for that amazing remake of That Darn Cat?”)
Julie Andrews won Best Actress for Mary Poppins in 1964 (probably at least partially because Marni Nixon was singing Julie Andrews’s part for Audrey Hepburn, but certainly also because she gave a magnificent, star-making performance). And now in 2013, Emma Thompson is almost certainly going to get a Best Actress nomination for Saving Mr. Banks. Disney has done pretty well for itself with P.L. Travers’s legacy. (Of course, from a less cynical point of view, the studio has now made doubly good on the promise Walt makes Travers near the end of the movie.)
Overall:
P.L. Travers may be prickly and difficult, but as a novelist who sees a lot of movies, I find myself watching and thinking, Hmm. More authors should fight for creative control of the film adaptations of their books. I mean Mary Poppins is not sweet. She’s a little creepy and certainly no nonsense. That’s part of what makes the character special. If she were just a jabbering, sugary wish fulfiller whisking children away from the horrors of a one-dimensional tyrant father, then Mary Poppins would not pack the emotional punch that it does. Authors like P.L. Travers and J.K. Rowling have the right idea. Do not let people who don’t understand your book and only care about money ruin your work on the screen. (Suzanne Collins has made good choices in this regard, as well.)
Saving Mr. Banks is a charming, emotionally resonant movie that will make you cry. Let me repeat, it will make you cry, and once you start crying, you’re not going to be able to stop until the credits roll. (Stay for the credits, by the way, because you get to hear an actual voice recording of Travers critiquing the creative team.)
Emma Thompson will definitely get a Best Actress nomination. (It will be a shocking injustice if she doesn’t.) And honestly Tom Hanks deserves to be a double nominee for this and Captain Phillips. Going in, I was quite skeptical of his ability to play Walt Disney, but he won me over. Take the entire family and go see this movie in theaters. Sadly, the popcorn is more than tuppence a bag, and by paying for admission to a Disney film, you’re hardly giving your money to charity. Still, the movie is worth seeing. Our family certainly enjoyed it.