A Review of Saving Mr. Banks

When my twin sister and I went to view the PG-13 Rated Movie, Saving Mr. Banks, we had no idea how rich the story-line would be. The cast included: Director John Lee Hancock, Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, and Bradley Whitford. 

Who says our past does not haunt us? As a person with a Master Degree in Counseling & Psychological Services, I so appreciated the way they took us all on a journey into our childhoods. We may say that our past does not affect our current state of being, but that is not true in any form. We may choose to shut it away, but even that behavior gives credence to our past, good or bad. 

The movie shows how a dad, Walt Disney, wants to keep a promise to his kids. They beg him to make a Hollywood movie from their favorite book "Mary Poppins". It took him twenty years to bring P.L Traverse, the writer of Mary Poppins to finally come to talk about the prospect. He wants to obtain the rights to take the book to the movie screen. 

P.L Traverse is not an easy woman to get along with and that is a nice way of putting it. She is a controlling, unhappy woman. She comes to work with the Hollywood team put there to help write the movie from her script. P.L Traverse seems to badger the team and also dictate her way at each and every turn, reminding them that she may never give over the rights.

Walt try's to sway the tyrannical author into giving over the rights. He wants to keep his promise to his kids. The two weeks he has P.L Traverse there in Los Angeles he does everything in his power to make her see what a gift this movie would be for adults and children. He has her stay in his lovely hotel, gives her many Disney gifts, and treats her like royalty.

You sense the deep wounds that P.L Traverse has endured by the way she reacts to the Hollywood team and by the flash backs she has in the two short weeks she is in Los Angeles. She knows she needs to at least think about giving the rights over to Walt Disney since her money has run out from writing Mary Poppins. She is at a crossroads.

You watch as her childhood memories flood her and she try's so desperately to protect the man who you learn was her father, Mr. Banks. We learn near the end of the movie why she can't let Mr.Banks be portrayed as a mean man. Walt Disney also understands that underneath P.L.Traverse's hard exterior, she is really a scared little child. Her child within comes out in a big way.

 Walt promises her as he describes his tough childhood and compares it to hers, why it is essential for him to save Mr. Banks in the movie and have him live eternally in the movie for all to see. Mr. Banks will be the endearing loving father forever more. Together, they will write the script so his charm will  live on in the hearts and minds of all ages. This is where the past and present and future can meld together to heal childhood wounds.