Saving Mr Banks

Saving Mr Banks, while it features a stunning performance by Emma Thompson and an excellent one by Tom Hanks, is a disappointment. It is simply too pat, too hackneyed, too saccharine. That said, Colin Farrell's performance as Travers' hapless, unsuccessful father is good, and Annie Rose Buckley, playing Travers as a child, is both talented and turns in a credible performance As the story of the negotiation between Walt Disney and PL Travers over making a film of Mary Poppins, it is mostly fiction. She was angry and disappointed in the movie that resulted, and felt shabbily treated by Disney and his company. That the Disney movie of the making of a Disney movie might whitewash the process should come as no surprise.