In some BIG ways this movie was a surprise. When I saw the trailer in the summer, I really thought that this movie was going to be about that P.L Travers who had a cold unloving,inattentive, unimaginative father, and then a nanny appeared out of nowhere.. and ended up saving her whole family- and especially her father. Hence, the title, ‘ Saving Mr. Banks!’ But much to my surprise, P.L Travers’ father was very loving and she idolized him; And he actually died from alcoholism because he was so unrealistic and drank his problems away..quite the opposite of a stern, overly realistic father as we see in Mary Poppins.He was also very, very imaginative. The lines, we hear in the movie “Mary Poppins,” Winds in the East, Winds to the West,” were actually said by her father in the movie at one point.
The woman who did come later as a nanny to help the Golf family actually failed to save Mr. Banks.. which I thought from the trailer she was going to do and be the inspiration behind Mary Poppins. It took me a while to realize this, but I guess what ended up happening was that P.L Travers.. imagined what would happen if her father could be saved and how the nanny would be if she could actually save him. So Mary Poppins is a mixture of this fantasy and idealism- and barely a morsel of reality.
I guess I was a bit disappointed because I was really hoping that when P.L Travers was a little girl that her father and her family were saved by this nanny who come out of nowhere and helped the whole family, and especially the father, out. I guess if it was real I would have been happier to know that though we cannot be totally saved by others during times of despair.. others can still offer some crucial help. Plus, I feel rather deceived by the trailer.
But the movie is still a good movie to see. The camerawork was amazing. In the opening scene you have the camera moving down from the sky onto the top of cherry blossoms, then through the cherry blossoms, and then through P.L Travers’ window. It almost gave the beginning a floaty, whimsical..imaginative feeling.. like a fantasy. I almost felt like I was dancing on clouds or eating cotton candy while riding a unicorn. Ironically. P. L Travers says to her agent soon after.. “Don’t they look like clouds?” in reference to the cherry blossoms.
I loved the art direction and how everything meticulously and truly represented the 1960’s. Whether it was the feel of the 1960s airport, the swimming pool by the P.L. Travers’ hotel, The look of the Mickey Mouses in her hotel room, etc. Along with the art direction, I loved the costumes on well, everybody. Whether it was Paul Giamatti’s thick rimmed glasses..Walt Disney’s skinny ties, Walt Disney’s secretary’s flipped hair and skirt suit… the costumes were great!
I will say that I liked Tom Hanks’ portrayal of Disney and how he made Walt Disney so affable. I loved the the acting of the young girl who portrayed a young P.L Travers and how she portrayed this perceptive little girl who rather be imaginative yet had to be an adult more than she would have liked. I also loved the actress who portrayed the mother of P.L Travers. She didn’t have too many speaking lines.. but by all her looks and glances.. she did the worrying for both parents in that family. She really echoed a mother who was trying to do her best.. but felt trapped because she couldn’t do much to change her husband, and also had the pressure of a family to tend to. I really felt bad when she almost committed suicide.. but I could really, really empathize with her. She felt that she really couldn’t help her husband’s drowning himself in alcohol.. so she would take control in the only way she could… Thanks to her daughter, she didn’t she didn’t control her life by cutting it short.
Last nor least, did I mention how much I LOVED Emma Thompson’s portrayal of P.L Travers. Oh My God.. this woman deserves an Oscar nomination for her portrayal. I love how she says, “Oh, no no no no” at least 15 times in this role.. with just enough fussiness! In many other ways, whether through the simplest glance or her short delivery of lines.. she manages to portray this fussy, immensely difficult, mostly somewhat tough, meticulous to the point of clinically obsessive- complusive –mostly unlikable woman. At the same point Thompson, puts in the cracks of likeability into her so that the audience doesn’t completely hate her. There is the time, when she tells Ralph the limo driver, that he is her favorite American and hands him a list of famous people who have had difficulties ( oh in case I forgot to mention it- I loved Giamiatti’s portrayal of Ralph).. but there are other more nuanced times, where you just give in to the fact that she is human. Like when she goes down to the hotel bar and tries to talk to the bartender.. but he doesn’t realize she is talking with him.. leaving her alone. For days she contemplates going down to the bar.. and when she does… she is unable to communicate with anybody. Or the night.. she needs something to hold while sleeping.. so she picks up the Mickey Mouse stuffed animal she initially detested. Yes, Thompson manages to breathe some humanness into this woman.. But furthermore, she manages to portray the pitiful aspects in this woman’s life.. After all this is a woman who is sadly kind of married to her father ( she did take his name…) and is very sore and hurt about the past.
In sum, this is a great and interesting movie to see- just don’t believe everything you see in a trailer.
I give it 4 out 5 stars.
