It's the second part of a Tom Hanks double-header this year with Saving Mr. Banks. After the man hit a home run with Captain Phillips back in October, I became quite excited to see how he would do as Walt Disney in this one. I am also a huge fan of the movie Mary Poppins, so I was looking forward to seeing this movie about how the movie came to be. The movie was a bit different than what I was expecting, but overall it was a very touching and emotional movie that was well worth my time.
Being quite honest, after I attended the movie I looked back and realized that the advertising for the movie was a bit off. The movie was advertised as the untold true story about the making of Mary Poppins. This made me feel like the movie was going to have some sort of twist or surprise ending that would shock or surprise audiences a bit. Then after giving off that vibe, the trailers actually went ahead and gave away any sort of surprise that the movie held. Having seen the trailer several times in the theaters, I guess I expected something more that was going to happen, but it never did. Pretty soon I realized that the trailer had given away the movie, which was really frustrating.
But hey, should I be criticizing a movie based on its advertisements? That's not fair. Now that I have that out of my system, let's focus on this movie. Tom Hanks has been getting a lot of press for his role as Walt Disney. Rightfully so. However, this is not a movie about Walt Disney. This is a movie about PL Travers. If you don't know, PL Travers is the author of the book Mary Poppins. The big conflict in the movie comes with Walt Disney wanting to get the rights to turn the book into a movie. Obviously we know how this turns out because the movie Mary Poppins exists, but we learn throughout this movie that PL Travers has a lot of baggage that she's been carrying with her for her whole life that has made her book very personal to her, so she rightfully wants the movie done right. There are a lot of flashbacks to her childhood that slowly present us this story of what she is dealing with, and the more we learn about her past, the more we feel for her as the movie progresses. Like I said, this is a very emotional movie, so if movies tend to make you cry, make sure you have your box of tissues handy.
Oscar buzz has been surrounding this movie for a long time, and in a crowded marketplace this Oscar season, tons of nominations may be hard to pick up. Tom Hanks has been getting a lot of press leading up to the movie, and if he picked up a best supporting actor nomination, I would not be surprised. However, this is not Tom Hanks' movie. This movie belongs to Emma Thompson, and boy does she kill it as PL Travers. That woman deserves an Oscar for that performance. In the end, I really did enjoy this movie. If you are looking for a movie to see this Christmas season, I'd definitely recommend you give this one a shot. I give it a 9 out of 10.
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