'Saving Mr. Banks' star Emma Thompson is the highlight of the film

( PG-13 ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

In 'Saving Mr. Banks,' Thompson plays 'Mary Poppins' author P.L. Travers, who is suspicious of Walt Disney's wish to make a film of her novel.

|
François Duhamel/Disney/AP
Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, (l.), and Emma Thompson as author P.L. Travers in a scene from 'Saving Mr. Banks.

Emma Thompson plays P.L. Travers, the author of the book “Mary Poppins,” in “Saving Mr. Banks,” and she is anything but warm and fuzzy. Frosty and snippy is closer to the mark. The film, directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, dramatizes the difficulties Walt Disney, played here with gentle rigor by Tom Hanks, encountered when he attempted to wrangle Travers into relinquishing the rights to her book. Since Travers despises animation and what she characterizes as Disney “treacle,” the challenge is daunting.

Through flashbacks to her childhood, the filmmakers attempt to give Travers, who grew up in Australia with a beloved but alcoholic father (Colin Farrell), some resonant low notes to counteract the shrill high ones in the early 1960s scenes. But the sequences with Travers berating her Disney collaborators, and Uncle Walt himself, are the liveliest. Thompson is very good at playing imperious, and she even manages an unexpected trace of flirtiness in a few offhanded moments with Hanks. Travers was a handful, and the movie, though far from hard-hitting, gives her her ornery due. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for thematic elements including some unsettling images.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Saving Mr. Banks' star Emma Thompson is the highlight of the film
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2013/1213/Saving-Mr.-Banks-star-Emma-Thompson-is-the-highlight-of-the-film
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe