So far so good for Saving Mr Banks, but there are still reviews to be filed...
Saving Mr Banks has been marketed, or at least interpreted, as a film about Walt Disney. But the crux of the film can be found in Pamela Lyndon Travers’ struggle to keep her story true while Disney and his corporation turn Mary Poppins into a film.
Thompson portrays a disgruntled Travers
All talk has surrounded Hanks, possibly because he plays one of the most controversial figures in the history of entertainment, possibly because his turn in Captain Phillips has been lauded as Oscar worthy, but it’s Emma Thompson’s P.L Travers – the author of Mary Poppins – who steals the show.
“It’s Thompson as the heroically unbiddable Travers who makes the most of it; her bravura performance effectively dominates the film,” says The Daily Telegraph in their wholly positive review.
Tom Hanks as the controversial Walt Disney
"Taken strictly on its own terms, Saving Mr. Banks works exceedingly well as mainstream entertainment,” muse The Hollywood Reporter, while Variety say: “It’s a bit square, never particularly surprising, yet very rich in its sense of creative people and their spirit of self-reinvention.”
So far, Saving Mr. Banks has settled on 74/100 on Metacritic, while Rotten Tomatoes haven’t compiled an aggregate at the time of writing. It wasn’t all positive, but any review with something derisory to say was keen to point out something positive to remedy it.
These two can't get along
“Ultimately, Saving Mr Banks is witty, well-crafted and well-performed mainstream entertainment which, perhaps unavoidably, cleaves to a well-worn Disney template stating that all problems - however psychologically deep-rooted - can be overcome,” write IndieWire.
Peter Bradshaw was the least complimentary; his review for The Guardian said: “Saving Mr Banks is an indulgent, overlong picture which is always on the verge of becoming a mess. Thankfully, reliable old Tom Hanks snaps his fingers and – spit, spot – everything more or less gets cleared away.”
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