Finally, a good movie...

At last has ended the drought of good movies as I caught the first showing of the oddly named 'Saving Mr Banks' at the famous Embassy Theatre, owned by Sir Peter Jackson. I say odd, because the main subject, Mary Poppins, is about as famous today as Nelson Mandela, in a different context of course. It is actually about the author of said fantasy novel, who liked to be known only as Mrs Travers, and who was much more a complex personality than many would have thought. Mr Banks, by the way, is the fictional father played in the original movie by Dick Van Dyke, with whom Walt Disney himself identified. How he was 'saved', I still don't know. The movie is about how 'Mary Poppins, the Movie' got made.

There is quite an Aussie element as Mrs L.P. Travers was born in Queensland in 1906 to an alcoholic banker father who delighted in telling his elder little daughter fantasy stories. The father in this film was played to the hilt by the gorgeous Colin Farrell, a perfect choice for this role. But it is Emma Thompson who plays Mrs Travers who carries the movie, with a superb performance of a curmudgeonly unlikeable woman who couldn't stand cartoons, and especially Walt Disney ones. Tom Hanks plays this role of Disney as his own, moustache and all, drawling his way with a pronounced Missouri accent, until, seemingly conquered by this impossible woman writer who won't agree to his demands, he flies to London to beg her for the film rights, rights which Travers had steadfastly refused to give to a mere 'animator'.This part is fiction, but carries the story nonetheless, as does Travers coming to Hollywood for the premiere and crying most of the way through the film she didn't want filmed, and certainly not as a musical. The movie is a tear-jerker in the best of ways, and the fabrications a la Hollywood don't spoil it at all. 

On reading the background of Travers, it appears that she, who was madly in love with her father who died as an alcoholic when she was only about twelve, became as an adult a really out-and-out lesbian, having quite a few 'lady affairs' throughout her life. She also had adopted a son who ironically became an alcoholic as well. So without Hollywood, this would have been a fascinating story, but Disney Productions, which produced it, had to have the last word. They needed, of course, some of the film footage of the 1964 Julie Andrews movie, which was only available if Disney came onboard. 

They were all happy with the result it seems, and Emma Thompson was up for a Golden Globe Award, which unfortunately went to 'our Cate' as the anti-heroine written for her in Woody Allen's latest film, 'Jasmine'. I had a cry during the movie, just a little one, but that is a sure sign the movie works for me.  It was a real lesson in compromise as Hollywood had to have an input, so the film was shot in California, although Travers never travelled there at all, and the deal was actually clinched by mail. I must say the 'Aussie' footage did not appear very realistic, even at its best.

So the mixing of fact and fiction can work in movies when the essential story isn't muddied, which was that of Walt Disney keeping his promise to his two daughters for twenty years, (the actual time it took to get the film rights), to make a movie of their favourite story, 'Mary Poppins'. Aussie actress, Rachel Griffiths, makes a small contribution as the fastidious Aunt, who was the actual model of the fantasy heroine. This is really a four star movie in my opinion.

Which brings me to where I am on this cool, now wet morning, when I decided to brave the changeable weather and take my scooter to the Sunday Market. Finally negotiating the streets in Te Aro, I make the market, buy my veggies, and decide to have a good coffee in Cuba to erase the memory of yesterday's monstrosity at the Astoria. I end up at Quilters Bookshop in Ghuznee Street, an old favourite where I should come more often. The coffee is perfect, the atmosphere bookish, and this is very Wellington. My faith is restored as I sit to blog, and see my neighbour is doing the same. I get a beautiful smelling coffee and a nice-looking lemon friand to help me to wait for the rain to pass when I will venture home. 

I have now learned not to take too much notice of the weather, but as tonight is forecast heavy rains, I may be better to forego the scooter and take the bus as I was used to, to go to my ballroom dancing at seven o'clock. We are getting serious with the dancing now, as the ads have been published for the competition, and I am a part of it. Better start serious practice I suppose, can't let the side down, as the Aussies are coming over in force to compete. 

Quilters Coffee/Book Shop

...in Ghuznee Street

with a tasty lemon friand.