Saving Mr. Banks, Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks Launch into the Oscar race

Robert Sherman, Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Bradley Whitford, photo by Richard Segal

Saving Mr. Banks is a force to be reckoned with at this year’s Oscars, make no mistake about it. Sure to touch the heart of many, voters and moviegoers alike, it is exactly the kind of film people will put up on their HD flat screen over the holidays, the one you can sit anyone down in front of, and one of the most uplifting stories of the year. More than that, Saving Mr. Banks is a moving, thoughtful tribute to both Walt Disney and P.L. Travers without shortchanging either of them. The film drew passionate applause at last night’s opening AFI Fest.

Word out of London after the film premiered seemed somewhat deflated compared to expectations. But those lowered expectations will work in the film’s favor now as people discover its many riches — chief among them, the astonishing performance of Emma Thompson as Travers. Dare I say it is as though she’s been preparing for this role her entire career — there is a little bit of every character she’s ever played and much of what we know about Thompson herself: her acute sensitivity to the oddness in people, her tribute to Mary Poppins with Nanny McPhee, her attention to detail, her own work as a writer adapting Jane Austen for Ang Lee and how hard it was for her to edit a writer she greatly admired to make it a more entertaining film. She is very much in the running to win another Best Actress Oscar with this performance.

Tom Hanks is having another year for the record books. He shows no signs of slowing down as an actor any time soon. And though most people overlooked his brilliant display of acting in last year’s Cloud Atlas, they will not be able to overlook his work in Captain Phillips, nor here, as Walt Disney. Hanks’ Disney is a revelation. Without giving too much away, he uncovers what has been hard to understand about the icon — the “why” behind the empire he built as the happiest place on earth. In both films he really brings it in the final moments of each. The smart and versatile Hanks plays two characters who couldn’t be more different, and yet he finds the humanity in the flawed Disney, and the vulnerability in the heroic Captain Phillips.

The other standouts in the film are Colin Farrell as P.L. Travers’ sick and alcoholic father and Paul Giamatti as Ralph, Travers’ driver.  The costumes, the art direction, the score, the cinematography and John Lee Hancock’s direction make Saving Mr. Banks a formidable Oscar contender across the board.

A word about the screenplay. If Saving Mr Banks strikes gold at the Oscars, with an original screenplay co-written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith Sue Smith, it would be the first film to win Best Picture written solely by a woman or two women. What better tribute to a film about a female writer than to have the story told by women writers? This provides Saving Mr. Banks with an opportunity to make Oscar history. *[Oops: Vicki Baum wrote the screenplay for 1932 Best Picture winner Grand Hotel.]

Emma Thompson has shifted the Oscar Best Actress race because she’s playing a more likable/admirable character than some of the other frontrunners. That usually counts for something. When you add in Judi Dench and possibly Amy Adams, you have a real race indeed. Thompson’s Travers is, it must be said, a pain in the ass. The Disney team knew they potentially had a hit (Mary Poppins ended up being the highest grossing film of 1964) but standing in their way was Travers, who couldn’t abide the Disney “flim flam” he wanted to infuse the film with. Thompson takes it right to the edge, to the point where you think you can’t stand another second of this woman — but the film cuts expertly backwards in time, telling us about Travers’ own childhood story, and suddenly her facade melts to reveal a vulnerable young girl who loved her father.