REVIEW: Saving Mr Banks

 Dour take on a beloved film (★★★ stars, Directed by John Lee Hancock)

An awkward film about a beloved old movie and it’s crotchety creators, Saving Mr Banks is strange in that almost every character in it except the driver (played with muted charm by Paul Giamatti) is deeply unlikable, and yet it’s hard not to love them for their often annoying faults.

Emma Thompson is radiant as P L Travers, the author whom the legendary Walt Disney (equally as well rendered by Tom Hanks) pursued for 20 years to gain the rights of her masterpiece, Mary Poppins.

Touching, tender and at times frustrating, Saving Mr Banks is not the most satisfying film you’re likely to see, but it’s required viewing if you are a fan of the source material – and who doesn’t have a soft spot for animated penguins, Julie Andrews’s cut-crystal voice and Dick Van Dyke’s awful cock-er-ney accent?) – or a lover of all things Disney.