A beautiful movie. This is the kind of film that moves ahead solely by conversations and emotions. Hard for a conversation-based drama to be this riveting. There's a lot of pain, but a lot of catharsis as well. All that is gracefully and effectively captured. Emma Thomson is truly amazing. And being a huge Walt Disney admirer, I love that Tom Hanks played him. I don't think anyone else could have done justice to the role. Then again, Disney wasn't the main character. I found myself identifying a lot with Mrs. Travers, and the character has a beautiful arc. Disney doesn't have an arc, as the reviewer rightly pointed out.
It is never easy to let go of your creation and give it to another being to mould it as he will. That, however, is how movies are made from books. Saving Mr. Banks is an example of the process that goes into convincing authors to compromise a bit, but the wonder here is that this is not about just another author and filmmaker. It is about Walt Disney and the author of the Mary Poppins series, Pamela Travers a.k.a. Helen Goff, and their difficult collaboration that finally culminated in the movie that children and adults still love.
Pamela Travers (Emma Thompson) has been pursued....