Film

Saving Mr. Banks

Name: Saving Mr. Banks
Genre: Comedy, Drama, History
Released: 2013
Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Ruth Wilson

Biopic

A drama about the contentious 1961 collaboration between P.L. Travers and Walt Disney as he pursues the film rights to Mary Poppins. It's a character study wrapped in Hollywood history, alternating between Travers's austere present and her trauma-shadowed past. For anyone fascinated by how art gets made, and the wound that creates the artist.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a film about the stubborn friction between an artist and the people who want to buy her work, where the charm comes from prickly characters slowly loosening up rather than from big set pieces.

Skip it if you want a brisk, tightly plotted story, since this one moves between a present-day negotiation and a wistful childhood past that takes its time getting where it's going.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just over two hours, and be ready to shift between Los Angeles meetings and flashbacks to rural Australia, with the mood sliding from playful to melancholy.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Post2017

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks reunite in a tense drama about The Washington Post's fight to publish the Pentagon Papers. Sharp dialogue, genuine stakes, and two actors at the height of their powers sparring over principle and courage.

But It's a procedural about bureaucracy and legal strategy. If you need constant plot momentum rather than idea-driven tension, it can feel slow.

Darkest Hour2017

Gary Oldman's Oscar-winning turn as Churchill, but the film itself is a masterclass in intimate historical drama. It finds humanity and doubt in a man we think we know, with gorgeous cinematography and a script that earns its emotion.

But Very British in tone and pacing. If you find Churchill the man uninteresting, the film won't change your mind.

The Imitation Game2014

Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the mathematician who helped crack the Nazi Enigma code. A brilliant mind undone by secrecy and shame, told with precision and real pathos. Gripping and heartbreaking.

But The script takes historical liberties that irritated some viewers. If accuracy matters more than emotional truth to you, that will grate.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Saving Mr. Banks

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Barton Fink1991

Both are about the collision between artistic integrity and commercial pressure, between the person who creates and the system that wants to consume them. Both are set in Old Hollywood's ruthless machinery.

The Coen Brothers' 1991 masterpiece about a New York playwright hired to write screenplays in 1940s Hollywood. It's Saving Mr. Banks inverted: the artist swallowed by the industry, losing himself entirely. Hallucinatory and brilliant.

But It's deliberately oblique and surreal. The third act abandons plot logic. If you need conventional narrative, it will feel like it falls apart.

Finding Neverland2004

Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, discovering the story within his own loneliness. Like Saving Mr. Banks, it's about how trauma becomes art, with warmth and genuine melancholy throughout.

But It's sentimental, and the whimsy can tip into saccharine. Depp's performance is gentle rather than showy, which some find underpowered.

Genius2016

Colin Firth as Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor who shaped American literature. Quiet, intelligent, about the invisible relationship between artist and the person who helps shape their work. Beautifully acted.

But There's barely any plot. If you need forward momentum and external conflict, you'll be restless.

Capote2005

Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrait of Truman Capote writing In Cold Blood. Meticulous, unsettling, and devastating about ambition corroding charm. One of the finest acting performances of the 2000s.

But It's methodical and dark. If you're looking for something uplifting or even enjoyable in the traditional sense, this isn't it.

The Crown2016

Ten episodes of the first season paint Elizabeth II's early reign as a woman trapped by duty and history. Sumptuous, scripted drama with the texture of a prestige film. Claire Foy is extraordinary.

But Subsequent seasons are uneven. And if you have strong views about the Royal Family, the invented scenes will anger you.

A Serious Man2009

The Coen Brothers examine faith, loss, and the distance between people in a Jewish suburb of 1960s Minneapolis. Darkly funny, formally brilliant, and genuinely about something. Criminally underseen.

But Deliberately refuses resolution. If you need catharsis or clarity by the end, you'll leave frustrated.

The Dropout2022

Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes, the fraud who founded Theranos. Six episodes of compelling character study about ambition, deception, and the performance of confidence. Unnerving and often very funny.

But It covers real, recent events that some viewers found exhausting in the news. And the tone shifts between drama and satire in ways that don't always land.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both explore the artist's wound as the source of their work, and the way past trauma gets rehearsed rather than resolved. Both ask: what do we owe the people who love us versus the work that consumes us?

Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theatre director constructing an increasingly elaborate replica of New York inside a warehouse, blurring reality and art until they're indistinguishable. Haunting, visionary, about obsession and the artist's solipsism.

But It's demanding and deliberately confusing. The structure mirrors the protagonist's fractured mind. Most people find it exhausting rather than rewarding.

My Winnipeg2008

Like Saving Mr. Banks, it's about returning to a place that shaped you and understanding what it cost. But where Thompson's film is orderly and dramatic, Maddin's mirrors the actual texture of memory: fragmented, unreliable, irrational.

Guy Maddin's experimental documentary-essay about his relationship with his hometown, featuring reconstructed memories, hypnosis, and the director's mother. Utterly strange, funny, and moving. Like nothing else.

But It's avant-garde. Grainy, digressive, deliberately artificial. If you expect traditional documentary structure, you'll be lost within minutes.