Saving Mr. Banks

DRAMA

Critical Characters

8.0 out of 10 | Movie or Rental

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Rated: PG-13  Thematic elements including some unsettling images
Release Date: December 13, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes

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Director: John Lee Hancock
Writers: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Rose Buckley, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, B.J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman

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SYNOPSIS:  Author P. L. Travers reflects on her difficult childhood while meeting with filmmaker Walt Disney during production for the adaptation of her novel, Mary Poppins.

REVIEW: The Blind Side writer/director John Lee Hancock flies in with a talking umbrella to uncover how Mary Poppins finally came to the big screen. Written by Sue Smith and Kelly Marcel, and based on actual recordings kept by Walt Disney Studios, this mouse's tale tells more than just how Mary Poppins came to life.

P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson, Beautiful Creatures), writer of the Mary Poppins stories, has been pursued by Walt Disney (Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips) for 20 years to adapt her beloved characters to the big screen. When she finds herself struggling to maintain her finances, Mrs. Travers travels to California to the Walt Disney production complex to meet with Walt and a team of writers and composers to see if Walt will be faithful to her work and the vision of her characters. She doesn't sign her rights to her characters away, doesn't want sappy and snappy music, and forbids - above all else - any use of animation. Every swatch of cloth, every choice of a cast, every nuance of the story plot is a battle between Mrs. Travers and Walt's creative team. Can either side compromise enough to create a finished film?

We all know that Walt Disney Studios produced and put out Mary Poppins as a feature film. That could never come under dispute. What this film shows is the turmoil, both internal and external, that Mrs. Travers underwent while trying to rationalize why and how to bring her beloved nanny to the big screen. The film is aptly named, the P.L.Travers collection of Mary Poppins stories a reflection of her own youth spent at the end of the line in Australia. She idolized her father who held a strong grip on his own imaginative spirit. She idolized him as she was a kindred Celtic spirit. Writing Mary Poppins allowed Travers to pay homage to her father and to attempt to reconcile her own demons concerning family.

The story flashes between Pamela's youth in Australia around 1901, then moving forward to 1960s London, England and Hollywood, California for a fateful few weeks where the battle for Mary Poppins' future commenced. Moving back-and-forth, we catch glimpses of what P.L.Travers has been dealing with her entire life. What starts off as an author's catharsis by putting finger to typewriter ends up being a much larger realization when she is faced with the decision of letting go of her creations.

Emma Thompson is superb as the P.L. Travers. She is prim and proper, holding her values and creations in the highest regard. She is difficult to deal with and more difficult to read. Tom Hanks, as Walt Disney himself, plays the man behind the Mouse with ease and a childlike enthusiasm. He also holds his own values in high regard, as well trying to keep a 20 year promise to his daughters. Paul Giamatti (Turbo) plays Travers' chauffeur Ralph, bringing his own positive attitude to the aid of a difficult woman and situation. B.J. Novak as Robert Sherman and Jason Schwartzman as his composer brother Richard are both very professional when it comes to being the creative force to put Mary Poppins on screen. Both over-the-top and subtle, each gets their points across to the Mary Poppins creator. Colin Farrell who plays Pamela's father and Annie Rose Buckley who plays his young creative daughter have a chemistry matching their creative and imaginative spirits.

Semi-biographical, semi historical, and pulling source material from both archived recordings from the Disney creative team meetings and sketches and movie sequences from the Disney Vault, Saving Mr. Banks has an air of realism mixed with whimsy. As with all stories of this kind there is always embellishment and license, but this feels just right. As Mary Poppins herself would say to the author and her need for closure and letting go, a spoonful of sugar will make the medicine go down.

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Fright Night (3D)

A Bloody Good Time

Director: Craig Gillespie
Writers: Marti Noxon, Tom Holland

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Chistopher Mintz-Plasse

SYNOPSIS: After schoolmates start disappearing, a high school senior starts to suspect that his next door neighbor is a vampire.



REVIEW: Craig Gillespie, director of Mr. Woodcock, Lars and the Real Girl, and several episodes of the HBO series United States of Tara, puts a stake in the ground with a remake of the 1985 vampire semi-classic Fright Night. With a screenplay from Marti Noxon, whose pedigree includes episodes from the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, as well as the sci-fi actioner I am Number Four, and Tom Holland, writer of the original Fright Night and Psycho II, this version with Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell has all the earmarks to be a great remake. Since remaking a horror film is all the rage and relatively successful - just look at the upcoming Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Let Me In, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - this year's Fright Night, with its added 3D thrown in should pass the acid (or Holy Water) test.

Anton Yelchin, from the Star Trek reboot and Alpha Dog, returns to the screen as Charley Brewster, the role that William Ragsdale played in the original. Taking on the Chris Sarandon role of Jerry is the always volatile and fun to watch Colin Farrell. The late night B-movie host Peter Vincent (what a perfect name) that Roddy McDowall played so well and with great aploumb in the original is now a Las Vegas magician in the hands of the good Doctor Who David Tennant. Rounding out the cast are Toni Collette as Charley's mom, Jane, Imogen Poots as Amy, and Chistopher Mintz-Plasse as Charley's former best friend Ed.



Moved to the desert communities outside of Las Vegas, Fright Night (2011) is geographically perfect for the modern day vampire tale. With a transient, more nomadic suburban community - where families move in and move away on a fairly consistent basis - and a society where people are as likely to be working and living at night as they are the day, where better can a vampire named Jerry hunt, seduce, and feed on the living without people raising an eyebrow or nosing about. High school senior Charley Brewster lives next door to Jerry, all the while oblivious to his neighbor's lifestyle. When former best friend Ed tries to confirm with Charley that the disappearances of friends and their families is the result of the vampire, Charley begrudgedly plays along until he can not deal with Ed's outrageous ramblings any longer. But when Ed turns up missing the next day, Charley finds proof in Ed's room that Jerry is exactly the fanged bloodsucker that Ed claimed him to be. Fearful for his mom Jane and girlfriend Amy, Charley hunts down and is granted an audience with Las Vegas Strip magician Peter Vincent, whose reputation is anchored in the occult and supernatural. Armed with information and a stake, Charley takes it on himself to confront and battle his bad neighbor to save the lives of the people he holds dear.

Derived and modernized from the 1985 original, Fright Night mirrors our 21st century lives. Gone are the schlocky, late-night B-movie creature features with aging ghoulish hosts. We are too desensitized for that nonsense. Instead, we are faced with a recessionary economy with foreclosures and 'For Sale' signs more prevalent than ever. Noxon and Holland build a brand new future vampire classic with the roots of the original, the slackerism of Disturbia, and the uncertainty of the world we live in.

Anton Yelchin, so good in almost any role he touches, exudes the modern average teenager. Just trying to get along without incident and with a glimpse of hope that popularity will propel Charley along to the next phase of his life, Yelchin's thin frame, lack of tan, and morose eyes tells a tale of it own if a teenager unsure of whether the Sun will come up tomorrow. Colin Farell's casting offers his vampire Jerry to be more primal and predatorial than Chris Sarandon's original, using his good looks, fit physique, brooding eyes and vampire skills to woe and wound. Farell's body language as Jerry as he hopes to be invited in to Charley's kitchen is as mesmerizing as a cobra flitting to the music of a flute. Toni Collette, who has worked with director Gillespie on Tara in the past, is as versatile and solid an actress as always. Chistopher Mintz-Plasse final scene, starring in a duel role of sorts, was reminenscent of Paul Reuben's final scene as Amilyn in the theatrical release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Fright Night (2011) is funny, nerve-racking, slick, well-crafted, respectful of the original where it needed to be and reworked where changes were demaned and would work best. The 3D effects are used sparingly, using classic 3D horror gags throughout and offering up some great new CGI 3D blood and smouldering ash to throw at the audience. The story works and the acting is superb. If you are a fan of the overly popular vampire genre, or a fan of the original, give this bloodsucker a chance. What do you have to lose?



WORTH: Matinee or DVD

Horrible Bosses

Working-Class Comedy

Director: Seth Gordon

Writers: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Stars: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx

SYNOPSIS: Three friends conspire to murder each other's horrible bosses.

REVIEW: Seth Gordon, director of such television hits as Modern Family, The Office and Community, brings to life the trials and tribulations of three friends with different jobs and a singular problem - they work for horrible bosses. Jason Bateman stars as Nick Hendricks who works for Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) with the false promise of advancement to a key position if Nick works endless hours. Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia plays Dale Arbus, a dental technician with a checkered past and an inappropriate aggressive black-mailing man-eater Dr. Juila Harris, D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston) as a boss. Finally, Jason Sudeikis plays Kurt Buckman whose happy career at a chemical plant for a great boss (Donald Sutherland) goes south when the boss' son Bobby (Colin Farrell) takes over and wants to run the business into the ground with all the employees in it. The three friends, realizing that they can't just quit due to the recession, their pasts or their skill set, set out to hire a hit man to off their respective bosses. Enter Dean "M.F." Jones (Jamie Foxx) who will not kill the bosses for the trio, but who will provide "murder consultant services" for them so they can do the wet works themselves.

Bateman brings his Arrested Development defeatist angst to the gig. Sudeikis travels straight from Hall Pass with the same kookiness and disregard for the boundaries between the sexes. Charlie Day is equal parts brilliance and stupidity in his role. Spacey is a boss that I would be afraid of crossing. Aniston as a comical sexual predator (is there such a thing?) is gorgeous and devious, with piercing eyes and a rockin' body. And Colin Farrell, with his hair combed over his bald spot and his coked-up disregard for his fellow man (or pregnant woman), steals every scene he enters - similar to Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.

Horrible Bosses is funny, although many of the best bits are in the commercials and trailers. Farrell, Day and Foxx provide the best laughs not previously seen. The situations the boys get themselves in are comedy all by themselves. Imagine the boys' surprise upon meeting a Wet Works specialist (Ioan Gruffudd) who supposedly will carry out the job for all three people for $200, or the amateur surveillance Nick, Kurt and Dale attempt in their bosses homes.

Not as memorable as The Hangover or Wedding Crashers as the ads may want you to believe, Horrible Bosses manages to capture the feelings that many have in their workplaces, but can not rate against all-time workplace struggle films like Office Space or 9 to 5. Even so, Horrible Bosses has enough in its story and characters to get a few laughs out of you if you ever get a day off.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix