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Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson clash on the making of Mary Poppins in Saving Mr Banks |
Director: John Lee Hancock
Cast: Emma Thompson (Pamela Travers), Tom Hanks (Walt
Disney), Colin Farrell (Travers Robert Goff), Ruth Wilson (Margaret Goff), Paul
Giamatti (Ralph), Bradley Whitford (Don DaGradi), Jason Schwartzman (Richard M
Sherman), BJ Novak (Robert B Sherman), Kathy Baker (Tommie), Melanie Paxson
(Dolly), Rachel Griffiths (Ellie), Ronan Vibert (Diarmuid Russell)
Walt Disney was a man used to getting what he wanted. And
what he wanted more than anything was the rights to PL Travers’ Mary Poppins
series. It was his kids favourite books, and he had promised them he would make
the movie. It took decades – and Disney had to wait until Travers needed the
money – but finally a deal was struck, with Travers having full script
approval. So the hyper-English Travers is flown across the Atlantic to Los
Angeles where she reacts with a brittle horror to every single suggestion from
the Mary Poppins creative team, and
distaste at the commercialisation of Disney’s enterprise. Based on the actual
recordings (which Travers insisted on) from the script meetings, Emma Thompson
is the imperious PL Travers and Tom Hanks the avuncular Walt Disney.
John Lee Hancock’s film is a solid crowd pleaser that, if it
feels like it hardly delivers a completely true picture of the making of Mary Poppins, does put together an
entertaining and interesting idea of the difficult process of creation and the
tensions when writers (who don’t want to change a thing!) clash with film
production companies. These problems being made worse by the clashing worlds of
the loose, casualness and breezy friendliness of Los Angeles, and the intensely
cold, buttoned-up Edwardianism of Travers, hostile to all shows of affection
and any touches of sentimentality.
The film gets more than a lot of comic mileage out of these
mixed worlds, with Travers’ every look of aghast, repressed, British reserve
(“Poor AA Milne” she mutters while manhandingly a stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh toy
out of her way, followed by “You can stay there until you learn the art of
subtlety” as she dumps a massive Mickey Mouse cuddily toy against the wall of
her bedroom) bound to raise sniggers at both her blunt hostility and cut-glass
wit. Against this the American characters – all of them forced to dance to her
tune – meet wave after wave of hostility with a practised American friendliness
and warmth. It works a treat.
The film walks a fine line with its portrayal of Disney who
is both a charming uncle figure and also a savvy and even ruthless businessman.
Tom Hanks is spot-on with showing both sides of this man, making it clear how
he managed to make so much damn money but also from how he managed to inspire
such loyalty from many of his staff. Yes the film soft-peddles on many of
Disney’s negatives – from refusing to show a single second of Disney smoking,
to no mention of his active union-busting activities – but this is a film
focused on Disney the impresario and negotiator.
And what a person to negotiate with! That the film works is
almost exclusively down to Emma Thompson’s imperious performance in the lead
role. Thompson has a very difficult job here of turning someone so consistently
rude, aggressive, arrogant and unpleasant as Travers (and over half of the film
goes by before she says something nice to anyone) into a character we genuinely
invest in, care about and laugh with as much as gasp at her rudeness. It’s a
real trick from Thompson, adding a great deal if inner pain and vulnerability
just below the surface, but only allowing a few beats of letting these feelings
out for all the world to see. It makes for a performance that is superbly
funny, hugely rude but also someone we end up caring about.
A lot of that spins from the careful recreation of Travers’
past in flashback, particularly her relationship with her father, Travers Goff
(played with charm by Colin Farrell), an alcoholic bank manager in Australia when
Travers was a child, who lived a life of irresponsibility mixed with bursts of
playful, imaginative games with his daughter. It’s the realisation, by the
elderly Travers, that her father was feckless and irresponsible that motivates
her writing of Mary Poppins, the super-Nanny who flies in and saves not just
the whole family, but specifically the father. Equally good in these sequences
is Ruth Wilson as the despairing Mrs Goff.
It adds a sadness to the backstory of Travers – and an
understanding of why she behaves the way she does – and the film also brings it
round to a neat mutual meeting ground between her and Disney, who himself had
problems with a father who drove him hard to achieve. It also explains Travers’
growing warmth to her chauffer, played by Paul Giamatti as a loving dad, the
one person she demonstrates some affection to within the film.
It’s a film that wants to have its cake and eat it though,
and it can’t resist adding a “happy ending” to the story of Travers finally
accepting (even if she denies it) that she enjoys the Mary Poppins film and is moved by the saving of Mr Banks that it
contains. In reality of course, Travers hated the film (though claimed some of
it was passable) and refused Disney all permission to ever make any sequel. But
that hardly matters here, to this fairy tale of saved souls which wants to see
Travers saved – even if the truth was far more complex.
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