When Saving Mr. Banks first came out in the theater, I knew I wouldn't see it during its initial run, but I definitely had it on my Must-watch later on DVD list. But it's my Mom's glowing recommendation for the movie that sped it up a lot faster than I intended. She knew that I always went to my Library to check out DVDs and she begged me to pick up a copy of Mary Poppins as soon as possible. Now this is a movie that she has seen infinite amounts of time over the years (odd that she still doesn't own it on DVD to this day). I ask her why she had to watch a movie that she already knows backwards and forward and she told me about Mr. Banks. Well, she told me enough as long as she kept spoilers to a minimum. So, I of course got Mary Poppins from the Library and dropped it off with her......

Having just watched Saving Mr. Banks today, I absolutely get why my Mom needed to see Mary Poppins again, because I have the same feeling right now. I haven't seen Poppins in probably 25 years if not longer and suddenly it's my next must-watch DVD, which I intend to grab from the Library. Hopefully tomorrow if no one else has checked it out since returning it to them. As for Banks, I found the story very engrossing, which I really didn't expect. I think the way the story is told serves it well. We get two bookend types stories, one involving Walt Disney, as played by Tom Hanks, trying his best to secure the rights to P. L. Travers book Mary Poppins as played by Emma Thompson. Both are fantastic, especially Thompson. She is amazing here. The other half of the story is following the young Travers and how her own ordeal shapes and creates the character of Mary Poppins.

I may have seen Mary Poppins a few times as a kid, but I wasn't entirely sure if what was playing out in Mr. Banks was 100% real as I have no knowledge of Travers prior to this. I think because of how the movie is structured at times and how some of the in-jokes are revealed to the audience (all good here), it reminded me of a lot of Shakespeare In Love in how 'art imitates life'. There are some great character revelations from certain moments in the film that seem innocuous at the time only to make a scene truly resonate later in the film. All I will say about it is Pears, Weather and Cane Knob. The best revelation comes at the end during the End Credits. I was very curious of they actually taped the table read and notes that Travers was giving out and was hellbent on digging into that after the movie was over. I didn't even have to wait that long because they actually play the tape recordings of the real Travers and it's awesome to hear. Fantastic movie that will get you teary eyed for sure. Definitely worth a Rent.

Great cast also includes Colin Farrell, Bradley Whitford, B. J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Rachel Griffiths and the awesome Paul Giamatti. Annie Rose Buckley as the young Travers is a great discovery. Never heard of her till now. I would definitely watch Mr. Banks again. Love the scene that takes place at Disnyeland. Makes me want to go there again, a place I haven't been to since 2000.

The movie is strange, I liked it, but it's a big budget movie of people sitting in a room talking.  I feel like the stuff in Disneyland was to make it worth seeing on the big screen and to not make it feel like a TV movie, you know?

The movie also falls into this thing that a lot of movies about the creative process (especially when they're about a well-known finished work) is that the final version is locked in and we don't really see the failures or the actual process at work.  The Disney version, except for a couple changes, is kind of locked in throughout the entire movie, they don't actually dissect that much, or justify why something works or why it doesn't, there's no trial and error or anything like that.  It's just "we have a version we like" hammered at her over and over, and her going "I don't like this, I don't like this" etc.  The WORST offender of this was Anonymous, the movie that was about the idea that someone else wrote Shakespeare's plays: the guy just had them all ready and waiting on a shelf!  Combine this with this trend of fake "concept art" (only showing "approved" designs or straight-up promo pictures as concept art) and this idea of instant inspiration as the standard instead of what creativity actually is: lots of hard work, lots of dead ends.  It creates an unrealistic expectation for artists: get it right the first time.  I'm very wary of that.