Saving Mr. Banks does exactly what was expected: it entertains, it makes you reminisce fondly over a beloved movie, it allows you to tap your toe, it brings tears to your eyes, and it leaves you smiling. But underneath the showy layers of the Disney Corporation’s securing the rights to make Mary Poppins lies a deeper and darker story. That undercurrent lingers, woven throughout the tale of Mrs. Travers and Walt, and it sits in the recesses of your heart if you let it—leaving a sadness for a little girl’s loss, a mother’s desperation, and a nurse/nanny who shows her love with a warm but gentle firmness.
I knew this was a movie about Disney, but I was surprised to learn it was a movie *by* Disney. After all, we see a side of Walt I appreciated—a side allowing him to be very human. Then again, the movie is made, so we know Disney wins in the end, right? That said, the manner in which the tide turned in the making of Mary Poppins is just a bit too happy, just a bit too joyful, just a bit too far a leap from everything leading up to it that as much delight as that scene brings (I’m sure I swayed in my seat or at least bobbed my head and grinned), it cannot possibly be an accurate depiction of what really happened in that studio.
Either way, Emma Thompson was perfect in this role. She brings enough gruff and enough sweetness, sometimes simultaneously, that her character is felt, not just seen. And Tom Hanks as Disney—I wonder if somehow there was an actual twinkle in his eye at some point. Perfect casting was achieved all around.