Saving Mr. Banks

There's a lot one must ignore and or forgive to allow this film to work its (eventual) magic. For a start, have any of the filmmakers associated with this film ever been to Australia? Apparently not, because their recreation of early 20th century Queensland bears no resemblance to the place whatsoever. Okay, I wasn't present in early 20th century Queensland either but their rendition of Maryborough in that time period looks so fake, phoney and artificial that it is clear it was shot in some back lot in Hollywood. "Ah, it's only Australia. Who'll know? Who cares?"

To anyone who watches this film: here is a statement - Queensland does NOT look like the set of an 'Andy Hardy' film.

Added to this, the audience must endure at least an hour's worth of Mrs. Traver's witty but annoying complaints and put downs. For the first quarter hour or so they are rather entertaining, but after an hour her character becomes a one dimensional bore. Yes, we get it - she's pedantic and picky and strange. Fine. But after an hour of this...

And then on top of all that, the film hinders its own narrative strengths by (over) using flashbacks to Travers as a young girl. Just when the story is gaining momentum we have yet another flashback to ye olde Queensland. Flashbacks are fine, but in this film they slow the pace of the narrative right down to a virtual crawl. Come on, crank this thing up to eleven!

But then, finally and thankfully, the film finds its emotional voice in the second half and from then on it becomes an increasingly joyful and entertaining examination of two people (Walt and Travers) as they battle over the final shape of the film 'Mary Poppins'. They'd been doing that already, but with various details suddenly becoming clear and motivations more understandable, the film really gets going.

Walt Disney comes across as squeaky clean (was there any doubt that he wouldn't?) and Travers' weirdo behaviour becomes easier to explain and forgive, leaving us the audience to be happy that they both got what they wanted. Of course they did, it's the Magic Kingdom.

I don't really know the moral of this story but like all Disney films it has a warm glow about that is hard to ignore and even harder to dissect. Whatever, it is what it is.

***out of *****