Saving Mr. Banks - Movie Review

Starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Ruth Wilson, B.J. Novak, Melanie Paxson, Annie Rose Buckley and Rachel Griffiths.  Directed by John Lee Hancock.

★★★½

I've never read P.L. Travers' original Mary Poppins book, but this film successfully filled me with desire to hunt down a copy. Seems like something my kids should read, familiar as they are with the Disney version with which Mrs. Travers had so many issues.  And if a movie makes you coming out wanting to read a book, that's a good thing, right? (I'm currently in the middle of reading 12 Years A Slave.)

This movie is a soft approach to the battles between Disney and P.L. Travers over her work, at least as far as the 1961 scenes go. It also keep flashing back to 1906, when Travers was a small girl, and those scenes inform why Mary Poppins means so much to Travers, and how protective she is of her work.

Colin Farrell, absent from the marketing save for his voice in the trailer and his name on the poster, has a substantial role as P.L.'s father, a banker who gets beaten down by life. His stuff is at least a third of the movie, and he and Ruth Wilson (as his wife) are very good in their very serious roles.

I'll admit I was moved by the end. Came together quite nicely, so when Travers (Thompson) had her emotional catharsis, I was right there with her.

Beautiful Creatures - DVD Review

Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Margo Martindale, Eileen Atkins, Zoey Deutch and Kyle Gallner.
Directed by Richard LaGravenese.

★★

It's Twilight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Teen fantasy romance meets Southern gothic in this latest capitalization on best-selling YA fiction.

My first problem: Very few of these actors are from the south, and it pained my ear to hear the way some of them faked it so.  It takes more than changing "oil" to "awl" to make it sound like you're a natural resident of the Carolinas.

My second problem: The story essentially entails all the other characters waiting around to see if our heroine is going to turn into a good witch or a bad witch.

The little-known Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert play the two star-crossed lovers, he a normal boy from the sticks, she the niece of the wealthiest family in town, rumored to be cultists.  They meet cute and flirt, but eventually a bad-girl cousin and a pure-evil mama show up to stir up trouble for them.  Obvious Brits like Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson get to chew their bits of scenery, but it all builds to a frenzied anti-climax that I'm sure came off better in the book.