Saving Mr. Banks or How PL Travers Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Walt Disney

Saving Mr. Banks tells the tale of Mary Poppins author PL Travers and her decision to hand the rights of her beloved book over to Walt Disney so he could proceed with a film adaptation of the material. As this main storyline unfolds, there are also flashbacks involving Mrs. Travers' troubled childhood involving her father and his struggles with alcoholism. Her experiences would provide major inspiration as she went about writing Mary Poppins later on in her life.

Let me start by getting the big question out of the way: Yes, Saving Mr. Banks does delve a bit into slightly queasy, Hallmark channel-worthy schmaltz, but, thankfully, it's not overwhelmed by this nonsense. It has such an earnest essence and such great performances that it manages to rise above the sentimental muck without being a totally rousing success. Saving Mr. Banks struggles to find the balance between its two parallel storylines. The main one involves Mrs. Travers' working relationship with Disney and her general opposition towards the creative directions they were going in; the other involves the flashback sequences that show her as a young girl dealing with her father's affliction. The film cuts back and forth between the two in awkward fashion. Just as we're investing ourselves in the story involving Travers' experiences at Disney Studios, we abruptly cut to a flashback sequence and it slows down the pace of the film considerably. It finally stumbles into its stride about halfway through when the flashback sequences get a bit more dramatic material to work with, but the storytelling method never fully gels in an effective manner.

What really makes the film work though are its strong performances, mainly those from Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks. Thompson has a difficult part to play as Mrs. Travers is so unlikable for the majority of the movie. Even as we discover more about her family's struggles when she was a child, the screenplay never gives us a strong reason to empathize with her in the 'present day' sequences. It's not particularly believable when she begins to have a change of heart because the writing hasn't defined her character enough for us to understand her reasoning and the flashback sequences just don't work in tandem with the 'present day' footage. Thompson makes the most of what she's given and keeps Mrs. Travers enjoyable to watch even as we are frustrated with her conduct. Hanks embodies the role of Disney splendidly and gives a wonderfully charming performance as the legendary figure. Jason Schwartzman and BJ Novak make welcome appearances as the Sherman Brothers, the talented musical duo who crafted the songs for the film. I also really enjoyed seeing Paul Giamatti as Mrs. Travers' lovable driver Ralph. Additionally, Collin Ferrell gives a sweet, understated performance as Mrs. Travers' father in the flashback sequences. It's just a shame that the screenplay doesn't strive to bring his character above the level of trite characterization.

CONCLUSION: Saving Mr. Banks is fun, sweet and slightly forgettable. It relies a bit too heavily on contrived and overtly sentimental storytelling methods in order to elicit an emotional reaction, but it works overall due in no small part to the talents of Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks and the rest of the supporting cast.

FINAL RATING: 3.5/5