[SPOILERS] Saving Mr Banks

When I first heard of Saving Mr Banks it was a clip of it used as an advert on my parents television in the kitchen, I watched as I was interested in what film Tom Hanks had been casted in this time but I was disappointed that nothing was made of the advert and it was no trailer either, it confused me and I wondered how Disney came to make a film about a film and how they expected it to do well in the cinema as a documentary about the creation of a film I never liked as a child.

Weeks later I started to hear more about it from my favourite movie critic Mark Kermode,  his adoration and love for the film and Emma Thompson every time the movie was mentioned and the interview with Emma Thompson grabbed my interest, so I put it in the back of my mind for some consideration.

I never came round to watching it until I just thought "Go on, it can't be that bad if Kermode loves it," although he did admit himself that he was somewhat biased about this film because he loves Mary Poppins and also loves Emma Thompson as an actress, I had only seen her briefly in a few movies, so I couldn't judge her myself.

I found that SMB was slow in the first ten minutes, I couldn't grow to like this woman but at the same time I knew that it was the intention of the film and that I would most likely learn more about her later on. The flashback scenes in the film confused me initially as I assumed correctly initially, then wondered if I was right in my assumption, but it made it obvious early on thankfully.

I have never read the book(s) and as I said earlier; I disliked the films themselves for reasons of my own, but enjoyed certain songs in it, so the film needed to win me over with its own merits and not because it was about another film, as I'm sure many people would choose to watch it based on their love for Mary Poppins, it certainly aims more towards the older viewers and not the kids of today too.

It was nice I admit to be able to relate to scenes in the film and know what it was referring too or the songs being played, the film definitely shows how hard it was to make the film and I wasn't trying to predict the ending as I was so immersed in the film; it was based on a popular true life story that I had never known and I trusted Disney to take care of it as much as Mr Disney himself (as played very well by Tom Hanks) had taken great care to make Mary Poppins one of his films with the consent of Mrs Travers, although I realise it must've been buttered up and Disnified to some extent to show their good sides of course, but I could let it slide easily.

Two points in the film made me want to cry but I didn't let myself give in to the feeling, I wanted to say I was still unattached to Mary Poppins, it was the movie itself that I felt sympathetic, admiration and empathy towards, and my mind could not help but compare the situation to modern day society.

Imagine it in today's society and it has no meaning, the world itself has become more ignorant and it's almost impossible to be able to create a story out of an author who wrote a classic story because there's so many. It's common for fathers to drink themselves to death and it's sadly also common for the mother to leave the family, whether in a dramatic suicide attempt or not, it would be featured on shows like Jeremy Kyle and considered as a serious problem with the children taken away, the nanny wouldn't be sympathetic and wondrous in the eyes of a child but very different.

This is why I feel Disney most likely buttered up the story to be a story in itself, I wonder what Mrs Travers would actually say, do and feel about a film being made about her own life, I don't think she would be happy with it and dislike the invasion of her already private life that was evidently difficult for her to confront with by the end of the film, I don't believe someone can change just like that and become more accepting of their past and them self and become almost completely different and much happier, I don't think this would change how private they'd like their life to be. Hell, who knows if Mr Disney himself would've agreed to that, I haven't done my homework on this film and I am merely judging it on the film itself.

But I suppose there's another story on top of those stories and that's the fact that the film about a film, book and author was created and we enjoyed it, it was aimed at the older Disney ages and I imagine it would've brought back a lot of nostalgia for some people, as the film went back in time very well and I even noticed an ornament in Mr Disney's office that my nan had or still has, the effort made to go back in time and do it well makes me admire the film a great deal because I love it when it's done properly and genuinely.

It would be nice to have learnt what went on between the incidents that haunted Mrs Travers, but I also respect the limit on the privacy kept in the film and how they wanted to share how difficult it was to provide the world with a classic film to top off the classic book and explain itself, it may have been to profit from just how difficult it was to make Mary Poppins in the first place though.

The film is wonderful and you fall in love with Mrs Travers, you can empathise with her so easily later on in the film and what you want her to do does happen, at least that's the case for me while watching it. I think it's going to end up as an underrated film but I do agree with Kermode that Emma Thompson deserves an award for her performance in it.