It is a credit to this movie that even though it is totally Disney-fied (after all, Disney made it and it is about Disney), it still works pretty well, and even has something of an edge to it. It follows two paths. One path follows the young PL Travers (the author of the popular "Mary Poppins" books) as she grows up in Australia. The second path follows PL Travers as an adult (played by Emma Thompson), as she negotiates terms with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) to make a movie based on the Mary Poppins books. One of the interesting things in reading the reviews of this movie was how varied the opinions were, not simply as to whether or not the film had quality, but what it was trying to say. Some writers thought it worshiped at the feet of Disney, and that it showed the world of Travers being gutted by the Disney machine. There was also plenty of banter regarding the "negative portrayal" of Travers. Amazingly, even though the movie was indeed made by the Disney machine, with all of the accompanying bells and whistles, I actually thought it told a good story, and even made some moving statements about why we make art and how little we know about what is behind the art of others.
What makes the business of making "Mary Poppins" so difficult for Walt Disney is the author of the books upon which he wants to base his film. PL Travers is only considering allowing this adaptation because she is hurting for money. As she begins the meetings with the screenwriter and the song composers, she makes it very clear that what is to follow will be a battle. She even goes so far as to insist that each of their meetings be taped in their entirety. Upon her arrival in Southern California, Travers has no intention of being seduced by the Disney spell. Her hotel room has been decorated with mountains of Disney memorabilia,which she promptly shoves into her closet. She dislike the heat in Southern California. She bristles at the familiar tone all of the Americans take with her. As the work on the film begins, the film's director parallels that action with vignettes from Travers' childhood. Her father (Colin Farrel) is a banker (sound familiar?), but he has trouble holding down a job due to is unreliability and his alcoholism. Many of the details seen in Travers childhood come back to inform her eccentricities as an adult. The poignancy of these scenes is palatable, but they are made even more so as we see the more modern day story play out.
Walt Disney eventually gets his movie made, after countless hours of haggling and complaining. There are tremendous scenes as Travers watches the film, and some of the themes she sees on screen hit too close to home for her. From historical anecdotes about the film's making, it is clear that Travers never liked the finished product. What I found touching about the movie was how it gave the Travers character reasons for being the difficult person she was. It would be easy to make a film and depict her as a stuck up prima donna. Instead, this film shows the pain of her childhood, and how some of the details Disney wants to change in her story were informed by deep memories of her own father. The depth of emotion that accompanies those details make tinkering with them very difficult for Travers. This nuance is lost on Disney and his cohorts, and they are left frustrated. The film also shows Disney as a playful showboat/conman, who is obsessed with creating his movies. There was a dark side to this kind of creative imperialism, and that underbelly is not lost in this movie. The performances are all great, and even when the story veers into the saccharine realms where only Disney can go, it still works pretty well.
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