Saving Mr. Banks Review

RYAN: This is one of the most anticipated films of the year because of the cast and subject matter – who doesn’t love the classic Mary Poppins? And here it is, perfectly timed for awards season. Both Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson give phenomenal performances.  They nailed it!  It’s incredible.

CHUCK: They really are two of the finest actors around. Everyone loves them but to now play iconic people like Walt Disney and PL Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, those are big shoes to fill; especially Walt Disney of whom we already have a perceived notion.  We know what he sounds and looks like and to take that on – was brilliant.

RYAN: Amazing. I didn’t think, “That’s Tom Hanks” at all.  He so became Walt Disney. He has this one great monologue at the end that is award-worthy.  But all of Emma Thompson’s performance was beyond.  It’s certainly one of the best performances by an actress this year.  Comparing her to Sandy B. in Gravity, or Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, this is right up there.

CHUCK: I agree.  She really filled out a complex character.

RYAN: She fully embodied her. The nuances were awesome.

CHUCK: And she somehow made this really cold lady sympathetic.  You didn’t hate her.  Part of that is because of script.  There is a lot of backstory to her character. She was so hardened by life.

RYAN: The whole film goes back and forth between PL’s childhood versus her collaboration with the Disney team – and you don’t get that from the trailer or TV commercials, so that was misleading.  I liked the Disney stuff better.

CHUCK: I did too.

RYAN: I wish they spent more time there but all of the flashbacks provide great context.

CHUCK: Right.  And they insinuate who Marry Poppins is as a character, based on the backstory.  But truly, the scenes at the Disney studios were by far the best.

RYAN: They actually shot at the real Disney lot in Burbank and at Disneyland.  The era – going back to see Disney in that context was really special.

CHUCK: It was sublime.  And it almost looked like it was shot in Technicolor, so rich in color at the Disney Park.

RYAN: And at the premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

CHUCK: Right. And you can tell the minute you see it that it’s the actual studio, not recreated.  At that time, Walt Disney Studios was the pinnacle of all Hollywood.

RYAN: The whole heart of the movie is really interwoven by the music throughout the film, courtesy The Sherman Brothers.  It tugs at you emotionally.  So every time you hear a theme or song from Mary Poppins,  you well up with tears because you’re overcome with it.  It’s profound.

CHUCK: So many people look at Mary Poppins as childhood fluff but there is a melancholy to it.  So when you do get those musical bits brilliantly woven into the score of Saving Mr. Banks, that emotion resounds within you.

RYAN: Paul Giamatti was great.

CHUCK: The whole supporting cast was excellent – Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, Kathy Baker.  The relationship between Paul’s character, the limo driver, and Emma was really touching.

RYAN: We both had super-high expectations.  You’re a Disney fan the way I’m an Oz fan, so I really looked forward to your opinion as a real Disney connoisseur.  It certainly met all of my expectations.

CHUCK: It went above what I was expecting.  I was a little scared it would skim over the surface of everything but they really portrayed these people as very multi-demansional.  Disney wasn’t a perfect person and you’re right, that monologue you referred, to illustrated a bit of his past and complexity, was perfection.  It’s a fantaststic movie.

RYAN: This is from John Lee Hancock, the smae director as The Blind Side.  He knows how to illicit a great performance from an actress and he did it with the whole cast here. It’s just a wonderful, cool, Hollywoody movie that’s greatly entertaining and insightful.

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