However much less was widely known about the creator of the book that inspired the film. P L Travers fought long and hard against Walt Disney's efforts to bring her book to the screen. She feared he would turn a darker and edgier tale of a dysfunctional family and a magical stranger into a sickly-sweet and commercial vehicle for his emerging empire. Saving Mr. Banks looks at the way the elderly and acerbic Travers was courted by Disney, to the extent he flew her out to America to meet her face to face and encourage her to work with lyricists and musicians he had employed. It would not be an easy negotiation and even to her death, Travers was said to have many regrets about the process.
The new film, with Emma Thompson taking the role of Travers and Tom Hanks essaying Walt Disney is said to chart those difficult waters and it does so with a witty script and some bravura performances. Travers - real name Helen Lyndon Goff - was born in the dying days of the 1800s in Australia and her childhood was a difficult one, though a time when she was encouraged by her father to channel the power of her imagination. The film plays out both in the early days of the 1900s and in the early 60s with the adult Travers. The earlier period is the most compelling, with the latter played with a lighter touch.
Hwoever it is impossible to ignore (and, indeed, it would be remiss to not make note of) a certain conflict of interest behind a film ABOUT a conflict of interest, when the company behind the film was created by one of the major players being featured. Yes, it's something of a Mickey Mouse moral minefield for Disney to be the company releasing a film where they depict their own founder as a kindly old man trying to find a way to bring a beloved childhood icon to the screen and trying to win over a difficult writer determined for him to fail.
There is, without doubt, more than a pinch of salt to be taken with this spoonful of sugar-coating to history. But such historical accuracy aside, the film is well put together and shines an interesting, illuminating focus on Travers' childhood and the elements of triumph and tragedy that would lead her to create a character that flew in to save a family not unlike her own. Anyone confused by the 'Mr Banks' of the title and his key role in proceedings will have all revealed as the story unfolds.
Thompson, of course, has form. She brought two big-screen adventures of her own creation 'Nanny McPhee' to the screen, the character clearly being a sister-act-in-spirit to the famous Ms. Poppins. There's obviously an attraction to the themes here, though Thompson denies it was quite that straight-forward a choice to take the role - she simply liked the material and the opportunity to be untactful.
" I just let out my inner-prickly pear. I basically was my true self, difficult and cantankerous - I only hide that for effect. I just let it all hang out! I've got to tell you, it was such a relief to be rude without any repercussions whatsoever. Can you imagine it? 'I don't want to go to your fucking press conference...' or 'I don't want to go to your birthday party, because I got bored of you years ago....' If you could just come out with these things and she did, she just said what she meant. I do that sometimes and get into terrible trouble. That was what was so great. My husband pointed out to me this morning, 'It's interesting that you created a magical nanny and now you are playing someone who has created a magical nanny, so do you suppose that behind every magical nanny is a cantankerous old bat?' Maybe it is an alter ego and someone you wish you could be...' I certainly wish I could be like that. With Walt and the mouse and Pam and her nanny, these are characters that have been created out of the soul of that person when that person was very vulnerable. I think that is what gives them their power and their staying power," Thompson explains when i see her after a London screening. "She said that she didn't invent Mary Poppins, she just arrived - most writers of genius would say the same thing. Of course, they are not going to arrive unless you sit at the writing table with your pen - that is the discipline - if you do that then it is like Field of Dreams and it will come. Sometimes it comes in a form that will survive any number of cultural interpretations and re-interpretations. That is what is so interesting about this movie as it is about two cultures coming together and clashing over this one iconic creation..."
"Everyone my age is going, 'Oh, there are no roles for women...' and then one of the best roles that I have ever played comes sailing along thanks to my extraordinary friend Kelly Marcel," she continues. "It was one of those scripts where you read the first page and go, 'I am in, yes, I will do it. You don't have to pay me.' They did, they insisted - they paid me in chocolate and stuffed toys..."
Beautifully photographed, nicely paced and with a strong ensemble cast that includes fine turns from the likes of Hanks, Farrell, Annie Buckley in scene-stealing form as 'Ginty'/the young Travers, this is a stylish outing that will charm and enthrall. It has real charm and real pathos and whether some of the cornerstone moments are true or not, if you take it as a childhood lost and found, then Saving Mr Banks might still laugh all the way there.
