Saving Mr Banks

(PG) ★★★★

Director: John Lee Hancock.

Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Annie Rose Buckley.

Quite frankly, Walt was embarrassing himself.

PEOPLE in the filmmaking business love to make films about making films.

On the one hand, it's like the old writer's adage "write what you know", but on the other hand it's a way to let audiences peek behind the curtain and see how hard it is to a shoot a movie. In the case of Saving Mr Banks - the story behind the beloved 1964 musical Mary Poppins - it's not even about the difficulties of filming, but rather the problems that can arise before that stage, such as trying to acquire the rights to a book.

Emma Thompson plays PL Travers, the cranky old cow who created Poppins and spent 20 years resisting the advances of Walt Disney (Hanks), who was desperate to bring the flying nanny to the big screen (supposedly to fulfill a promise to his daughters). 

Disney lures Travers from her London home to California to have input on the screenwriting process and to try and gain her approval for his cinematic vision.

Meanwhile, we learn about Travers' tough upbringing in Australia, her relationship with her father (Farrell), and how that ties in with the Mary Poppins stories.

As a result, Saving Mr Banks is two films in one, wonderfully edited together, to create an enjoyable and intriguing biopic. The '60s-set segment in California is like a rom-com but without the rom - Disney's wooing of Travers has all the charms, story beats and personality clashes you would expect in a Taming Of The Shrew-style romance.

The Australian section, set in rural Queensland circa 1906, gently unfolds its sadness and dark clouds and is deftly handled. A particular highlight is Farrell's performance, who delivers the duality of Travers' father beautifully.

His is one of many performances that make Saving Mr Banks an attention-holder in the face of a running time that threatens to be too long (125 minutes). Hanks and Thompson make a great pair - Thompson totally nails the need for Travers to be a sympathetic character despite being a grumpy nay-sayer, while Hanks is old-school smoothness personified as Disney.

On the side, there are wonderful bit parts from Giamatti as Travers' driver in LA, Jason Schwartzman and BJ Novak as Disney songwriting duo The Sherman Brothers, and Bradley Whitford as Mary Poppins screenwriter Don DaGradi.

There are some frustrating questions left unanswered by the film - minor things really - and you can't help but feel the whole thing is a little bit corny and probably hugely exaggerated.

But that's Disney after all. For many decades, the House of Mouse has been associated with good-natured sweetness, all-American charm, and happy endings, and Saving Mr Banks unsurprisingly ticks all of those boxes. Of course, people forget the mild moments of darkness, but that's just good storytelling - Old Walt knew Snow White had to have a witch, Pinocchio needed a scary whale, and that bad things had to happen to Bambi's mum.

As such, Saving Mr Banks is perfectly gauged to suit its subject matter - the light touch of Disney and the toughness of Travers, the slickness of Hollywood and the roughness of the Aussie outback, all rolled together into one story with broad appeal.