While this new Disney film is ostensibly a love letter written by Disney to itself, the sometimes startling insight it provides into the creative temperament and process is more than welcome. Telling the dual story of both a young and older PL Travers, irascible writer and creator of that well-known nanny Mary Poppins, Banks has all the trappings of a ‘timeless Disney classic’ – replete with emotional music, sweeping cinematography and a tearjerking plot. At the core of this piece is a woman so vulnerable, so sensitive, her artistic sentiment is in danger of snuffing itself out in the breeze. And the two actresses who capture her are the incomparable Emma Thompson as the grown and accomplished author, and beautiful young newcomer Annie Rose Buckley, who in addition to a stage-ready name, has gorgeous auburn locks and an angelic, innocent look.

That very innocence is what’s at stake here, in a film that explores that intangible moment when childhood shatters and gives way into adulthood. It happens early and with brute force for the young girl who would one day create Mary Poppins, when she begins that unfortunate process of self blame and even hatred that happens all too frequently to those young adults who are creatively gifted and often burdened with an acute sensitivity to the world around them. In Travers’ case, it’s at the hands of her well-meaning but desperately unstable (and alcoholic) father, played beautifully by Colin Farrell (in some of the best work of his career). And the story of her childhood provides a beautiful backdrop to Thompson’s part, in which the grown woman travels to hopping 1960s Los Angeles to meet with Walt Disney himself (Tom Hanks) to discuss (or rather, naysay) the details of turning Poppins, up until then a treasured literary character, into the timeless cinematic icon she is to become.

Saving Mr. Banks rests on brilliant performances small and large, from Thompson in usual powerhouse form all the way through to Bradley Whitford, BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman, who play Disney’s insanely talented music and story team who must convince the unimpressed (and downright grouchy) writer that the studio has what it takes to do justice to her beloved heroine Mary. Thompson’s relationship to Mary Poppins, as well as the other characters in that world (notably Mr. Banks, who is a thin foil for her real father), is the tripwire to a whole cavalcade of both comedy and drama here, since the actress and filmmakers dutifully respect what it means to create a character and the terrifying prospect of letting that character and story out into the real world.

Look for another brilliant cameo, by Brothers & Sisters’ Australian-born Rachel Griffiths, who plays the woman who would inspire the magical nanny, seen through an impressionable child’s eyes.

—DH