Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Rated PG-13

126 minutes

Directed by John Lee Hancock

Flashbacks. They are so delicate. Do them correctly, and your film could be seen as a masterpiece. Do them poorly, and your film is terribly handled, jumping back and forth between flashbacks and current day. Of course, it's no secret that Saving Mr. Banks has flashbacks. The question is, did they make or break the movie?

The flashbacks brought the movie down a great deal. They weren't all that good. You were watching 1961 Grump, played by Emma Thompson, throw out pears from her hotel window, and all of a sudden, we're watching 1906 Grump, who's just the sweetest little thing (sarcasm) who builds houses out of sticks and leaves, saves her dad's job, and fuel his addiction. But she has the cutest little smile, so why wouldn't we want to see overlong, sentimental flashbacks featuring her (more sarcasm)? And as soon as the family is done acting like ducks, we get back to 1961 to see the most shocking thing that's ever happened in the history of film: the pears went into the hotel pool! So shocking! And the flashback fit perfectly with the pears (sarcasm overload)!

I also had a beef with the ending. It wasn't true to how it happened in real life, which is fairly deceiving to general audiences who don't know the actual story behind it. And it doesn't even fit with the movie at all. With how Hanks and Thompson's characters were portrayed throughout the film, the ending just took them out of their structured characters that they spent 2 hours setting up! It was just off by a wide margin.

I did like it overall, though. Mainly because of 3 scenes. Those 3 scenes were: The first scene in the rehearsal room (had me laughing and smiling, mainly because of Bradley Whitford and Jason Schwartzman), The scene with "Let's go Fly a Kite" (it got the song, which I never loved, stuck in my head, and it was just so light-hearted), and the scene in the end with Hanks and Thompson (had 1/2 of our party in tears). I also did like the acting by most of the actors, and it was technically proficient.

In the end it all comes down to one thing: Oswald the Rabbit got screwed. Once again. And it has 3 great scenes. But that's what's noteworthy.

3/5

C+