SAVING MR. BANKS--This is an excellent movie, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The main theme is "Irresistible force meets immovable object", and given that Mr. Disney is rather obviously used to overwhelming people to get his way, Mrs. P.L. Travers has incredible strength to be able to stand up to that. The main action is intercut with her past history in Australia, and why Mary Poppins means more to her personally than anyone else can imagine (though, for one brief moment, Mr. Disney does understand). Both Tom Hanks as Disney and Emma Thompson as Travers dominate the movie rather equally, while Colin Ferrell as Travers' father and the little girl who plays Travers as a child are exceptional. However, I'd like to give a shout-out to Paul Giamatti who plays the Nebbish Driver--his basic goodness and decency finally make an impact even on the brittle and prickly Travers.

Bring a handkerchief, by the way; there are several moments in the film during which many people seemed to have to wipe their eyes, including me.

It was nice to see how the Disney empire in the 1960's looked like an alien planet to people from other climes and cultures, too--still does if you get stuck in the Small World ride, believe me. However, the interplay of scene and character were well put together. It's nice to see a movie that doesn't depend on explosions or special effects, but instead count on character, acting, and a really well-put-together script to make the movie work. And it does work.

A bit of searching will make the interested participant realize that some liberties were taken with the history, but not as many as you might think. Emma Thompson walked a fine line between understandably reluctant to let her books be filmed, and utterly nasty, and gave a truly fine performance as Travers. Tom Hanks as Disney allowed himself to show a few vulnerabilities, exchanging truth for truth about fathers, in a key scene late in the movie.

And it was clear in the movie that Travers, if she made some of the contributions shown there, that Mary Poppins became better than originally planned because of her presence. Ok, it was a presence staring like an evil eye of Horus down the backs of the scriptwriters and composers, but keeping their feet to the fire seems to have had some good results.

This movie is recommended, especially for mature audiences who like intelligent scriptwriting and sound acting.