Saving Mr. Banks

Emma Thompson stars as author P.L. Travers, whose fraught negotiations with Walt Disney over the adaptation of Mary Poppins become a sharp, unexpectedly moving film about memory and creative control.

When Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) seeks to adapt Mary Poppins into a feature film, he must first convince its author, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), to relinquish control. Reluctantly travelling to Los Angeles, Travers becomes embroiled in two weeks of creative negotiations that resurface memories of her childhood. As Disney’s script developers and songwriters attempt to reshape her work, Travers resists sentimentality and insists on fidelity to her vision. Directed by John Lee Hancock, Saving Mr. Banks blends studio drama with personal history.

Curator’s Note

Emma Thompson plays P.L. Travers with precision and formidable wit, a woman who concedes nothing without a fight. Rather than softening the character, Thompson brings out the vulnerability beneath her guarded exterior, using small gestures and shifts in expression to reveal what Travers will not say aloud.

Opposite Tom Hanks' warm but determined Walt Disney, Thompson gives the film its central tension. Their clashes over Mary Poppins, from Travers' horror at the Disney toys filling her hotel room to her objections to the script, make the question of who owns a story impossible to ignore. John Lee Hancock keeps the drama focused on this uneasy creative negotiation, while Thompson never allows Travers to become a caricature of the difficult writer. The film premiered as the closing gala of the 2013 BFI London Film Festival.