Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Author P. L. Travers reflects on her difficult childhood while meeting with filmmaker Walt Disney during production for the adaptation of her eponymous novel. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: John Lee Hancock
Written By: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
Starring: Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Emma Thompson, Kathy Baker, Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, Colin Farrell, Rachel Griffiths, Dendrie Taylor, Ruth Wilson, B.J. Novak, Victoria Summer
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Biography, Music
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Saving Mr. Banks belongs to 23 collections
1. Movies about movies (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 30 stars)
2. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
3. Writers and writing (collaborative: moderated by djross - 11 stars)
4. 1960s period film (collaborative: moderated by djross - 9 stars)
5. Anamorphic Cinematography (collaborative: moderated by Bojangles - 7 stars)
6. 86th Academy Awards: Nominated (collaborative: moderated by ceseth - 6 stars)
7. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
8. Disney+ (collaborative: moderated by saudade - 5 stars)
9. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)
10. Disney's Theatrical Live-Action (collaborative: moderated by Vesey - 2 stars)
11. Black List Films (public: jimmyjazz - 2 stars)
12. Top 2000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 2 stars)
13. Alcoholism (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 1 star)
14. NBR Top 10 Films (collaborative: moderated by xacviant - 1 star)
15. film puanlamalarım (collaborative - 1 star)
16. Top AlloCiné (public: sianaa - 1 star)
17. Wishlist (collaborative)
18. Nostalgia Critic - Disneycember (collaborative: moderated by Phantom Nook)
19. Tom Hanks (collaborative: moderated by lesharle)
20. Queensland (collaborative: moderated by Equanimity)
21. 2014 (public: EbruCavdarli)
22. My Favourite Films (public: BriRam)
23. Seen, Not Rated (public: SageSledge)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 4 |  |
chadisdanger | 72 30th |
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This film would be a great barometer for testing one's tolerance and patience for Disneyfied schmaltziness. It's most assuredly cliched and treacly, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't sneak up on me emotionally. MVP is of course Thompson. What seems like an overly fussy and obvious performance at first comes back around into something believable and even moving. She's key to this whole thing working at all, and you know what, it eventually does! Period detail and songs are all fun as well.
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| 4 |  |
BeeDub | 85 63rd |
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A Disneyfied story about a Disneyfied story. Thompson and Hanks are both great, but the blatant historical revisionism (including the melodramatic flashbacks and completely fabricated climax) keep this movie from becoming truly revealing or insightful. Still, it's pleasant enough if you worship at the altar of Disney in general or Mary Poppins in particular.
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| 2 |  |
Filligan | 84 56th |
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I'm impressed at how the film was able to continuously cut back and forth between the lighter adaptation story and the broodier flashbacks; it happens throughout the whole film and only a couple times does the pacing trip up. Hanks and Thompson are utterly perfect.
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| 2 |  |
XakkMaster | 75 50th |
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Great performances propel us along a road we've already traveled, but engage us enough to still want to see where we're headed. It was fun watching the song/scriptwriters working on the film. Flashbacks were decent (Farrell does surprisingly well), though too frequent. Ultimately, it's a Disney movie boasting about the magic of Disney movies (which can induce some heavy sighing or eye-rolling), but they've got the chops to back it up. Definitely recommended, especially to fans of Mary Poppins.
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| 2 | jthusky | 74 64th |
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Alternatively saccharine-sweet and total melodrama, Saving Mr. Banks rides a good sense of humor and an incredible lead performance from Emma Thompson for an emotional experience. The Disney whitewashing is quite obviously in effect, though.
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| 2 | DougieD | 30 5th |
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The celebration of Disney schmaltz and saccharine crammed down the viewers throat with depressing flashbacks and caricatures in place of real characters. The flashback scenes showing Travers' childhood make the picture drag and could have been cut completely, and the modern day scenes encourage you to laugh at the awkward DIsney employees trying to deal with a crabby and eccentric woman. If it wasn't for the great Sherman brothers tunes I would have found it completely intolerable.
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| 1 |  |
Kavu | 71 50th |
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Manages to exceed my expectations thanks to Hanks, Thompson and some pretty decent writing.
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| 1 |  |
cagedwisdom | 100 90th |
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The performances, particularly by Emma Thompson, are spectacular. She really might be my favorite actress of all time. Really enjoyed both the past and "present" segments and I honestly couldn't care if it glosses over or misrepresents the story. It's engaging and great and it brought me to tears more than once.
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| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 73 36th |
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Saccharine, and distorts the source material as much as Mary Poppins it would seem, but it is done well enough to hit its marks and allow the underlying story to show its strengths. The leads are strong, particularly Thompson, which helps as well.
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| 1 |  |
td888 | 10 2nd |
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I couldn't stand it. Switched it off after 30 minutes. This is just not for me.
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| 1 |  |
Luna6ix | 71 37th |
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I don't understand who thought we needed the making of Mary Poppins with a big budget and some a-list actors. I could see a Walt Disney bio, but this is not one. Either way, this is not great, but it's also not without some entertainment value, just not overflowing with it. Apparently, two of the top mini-reviews for this movie feature the word "saccharine," so I suppose i'll have to as well, in hopes of a plethora of stars...saccharine.
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| 1 |  |
Langelund (CinemaZone.dk) | 35 19th |
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Chim Chim Cher-ee-diculous.The never ending flashbacks may be the tackiest I have seen for a long time even for Disney standards. And sadly Emma Thompson's character is even more annoying than her acting is marvelous.
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| 1 |  |
Ocelot | 45 36th |
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I actually quite liked the "present" portion of the film; in a way, I thought Travers's childhood trauma was conveyed well enough that the flashbacks were completely redundant. I found myself simply not paying attention to them as they seemed to simply be telling me what Thompson had already expressed in her performance. I'd really like to see a movie about Disney himself, though.
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| 1 |  |
jack parsons | 5 17th |
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Honestly, Paul Giamatti's very small role was the only one that interested me. I'm not familiar with Mary Poppins, I mean, I watched when I was a kid, but it isn't memorable, and I will probably not re visit it. I suppose I wasn't the target audience, here.
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| 1 |  |
Wezzo | 91 83rd |
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Maybe the flashbacks are a little overwrought; maybe elements of what happened are whitewashed. But this is still one heck of a movie, a mighty, marvellously-acted companion to Mary Poppins that works simultaneously as behind-the-scenes comedic fluff and honest-to-goodness emotional enhancement. Thompson and Hanks are, of course, great, but Giamatti, Novak, Whitford and Schwartzman do great work in support, too. Very entertaining, and occasionally, profoundly powerful.
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| 1 |  |
stuie299 | 85 76th |
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A great movie if for nothing more than a top notch cast lead my Thompson and Hank's Outstanding performances. Also the score holds up well to the high Thomas Newman standard. Maybe Newman will actually win this year.
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| 1 |  |
TheDailyNathan | 75 41st |
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We get a somewhat cliche and generic feel-good story here, though it's acted better than I thought (Emma Thompson is a great lead, who brings out the stubborn coldness in her character believably). While we got a lot of references to the movie and songs in it, it surprisingly doesn't actually delve much into Mary Poppins herself, which sort of leaves the ending without tying up a meaning/purpose to the story of the author's life.
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| 1 |  |
Goldbluming | 60 18th |
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annoying as shit
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| 1 |  |
MikeH | 54 9th |
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One of the most frustrating films I've ever seen! Great performances from Thompson and Hanks, but an excellent film was ruined by the continual cliched, over-wrought flashbacks to Travers' childhood in Australia.
They should have made 2 films, the 1st called 'The Making of Mary Poppins' which told the story of Travers and Disney, and the 2nd called 'Mary Poppins: Origins'.
Then I could have enjoyed the first film and ignored the 2nd!
As it was I just had to watch both of them at once...
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| 1 | PluggedIN | 80 82nd |
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Saving Mr. Banks has scattered content concerns. But it does fly. It has the power to touch both the Travers and Disney sides of all of us. It does not shy away from the sometimes sad realities of life while telling us we need to be prudent in our decisions, moral in our choices and careful in our entertainments. It has its feet on the ground, yet it tells us that it's OK to imagine. To dream. To patch up our broken kites and find a way to soar with them. (pluggedin.com)
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| 1 |  |
Boxcars | 7 49th |
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Although the reality behind the film's events have been presented with a spoonful of sugar thrown in, "Mr. Banks" is ambiguous and well-crafted enough that even if it appears to be a transparent case of self-congratulation, you'll find that you enjoyed it nonetheless.
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| Average Percentile 52.8% from 1443 Ratings |  |