Film review: Saving Mr Banks recounts the birth of Mary Poppins

SAVING MR BANKS
Starring: Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell
Director: John Lee Hancock
Category: IIA

Light dramas have fallen out of fashion in Hollywood in recent years, but here's one from Walt Disney Pictures that makes for a pleasant couple of hours' viewing. Saving Mr Banks doesn't dig deep into its characters - Walt Disney and P.L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books - despite its pretence to the contrary, and its attempts to offer up psychological insights are clumsy.

But the performances of Emma Thompson (as Travers) and Tom Hanks (as Disney) are capable in the extreme, sometimes exuding the engaging charm of a latter-day Hepburn and Tracy. Their solid, old-school acting often allows them to fight through the movie's layers of fluff to give it a bit of gravitas.

The story is based on fact. Disney (who likes to be called Walt) has been trying hard to buy the rights to Mary Poppins for 20 years, but London-based Travers (who prefers to be called Mrs Travers rather than Pamela or, worse, Pam), fearing a slick and superficial Hollywood treatment of her work, has always resisted.

Still, she's starting to run out of cash, so agrees to visit his Los Angeles studios and partake in something that never, ever happens in Tinseltown - work on a script for her book before he has obtained the rights.

Disney thinks that if he can impress Travers with his sensitivity and professionalism, she'll sign over the book to him during the process. But he hasn't counted on her snooty, Iron Lady manner and pure disdain for anything American - especially his "cartoons", which she finds childish.