Day: October 20, 2013

Early last May I ran a rave review of Kelly Marcel‘s script of Saving Mr. Banks. The name of the piece was “If Saving Mr. Banks Is As Good as The Script…” Well, I saw Saving Mr. Banks in London this morning, and I’m sorry to say that the movie I “ran” in my head as I read Marcel’s script seemed a little better than the version I saw today, which has been directed in a cautious, somewhat rote fashion by John Lee Hancock. I didn’t hate or dislike it. I felt reasonably engaged. It pays off reasonably well at the end. But it tries very hard to please, and you can feel that effort every step of the way. And it’s aimed at the squares.

This isn’t to say that Saving Mr. Banks, which will open the AFI Film Fest on 11.7, lacks feeling or spirit or finesse. It has these qualities plus two stand-out performances from Emma Thompson as “Mary Poppins” creator and author P.L. (i.e., Pamela) Travers and Tom Hanks as the legendary Walt Disney. It will be popular, I’m guessing, with those who love the 1964 film version of Mary Poppins as well as the patented Disney approach to family entertainment. And it may snag Oscar noms for Thompson, Hanks and Marcel. And it may make a pile of money from a blend of family and general audiences. But it’s not my idea of a Best Picture contender…sorry. It doesn’t feel carefully measured or focused or shaded enough to warrant that honor. It’s too hammy, too family-filmish — it approaches a farcical tone at times. And it tries too hard to make you choke up.

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London Film Festival press-passers (myself included) saw Saving Mr. Banks at 10 am this morning at the Leicester Square Odeon, and then a percentage of same attended the Banks press conference at the Dorchester at 2:45 pm. It also rained a lot. I’m tapping out my review and will post it around 11 pm London time, as requested by Disney publicity. In the meantime here are some diversionary photos and videos — ugly car, beginning of Banks press conference, Dorchester visitors stranded on front steps by rainstorm, hazy head shots, etc.

The ugliest Lamborghini in world history was parked outside the Dorchester this afternoon, obviously owned by someone filthy rich (some Middle-Eastern guy?) and clueless beyond belief. It has to be a guy — no woman would drive around in something like this. I’m also guessing that the style is borrowed from Joseph Kosinski‘s Tron. The guy who bought this car needs to have his wealth impounded and then it needs to be given to the poor.

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It’s good that Benedict Cumberbatch has been enjoying his big emergence moment since…what, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? My personal shorthand is that he’s the new lizard-eyed Richard Burton. Cumberbatch is planted and vivid and very “right now” but he does look like a brilliant fellow with rather cool blood in his veins. That’s not a putdown. It’s just something in his vibe and genes. The feeling of acute intelligence within him is quite fierce. I could be wrong but he’ll never be able to costar in anything dumb or downmarket.

One morning about a week ago I started feeling a sense of something bad around the corner. I didn’t know what it was. I thought maybe my mother had suffered another stroke and taken a turn for the worse. (We’ve all heard stories about parents and wives sensing it when a son or husband has died or been hurt in a war zone.) Then I thought it might be girlfriend trouble, but I decided against that possibility. (Things are always in flux on that front.) Then I thought that my obese Siamese cat Mouse had been hit by a car — nope. All I knew was that something was causing this queasy-gut feeling. And then the day passed and the sun came up the next morning and the feeling went away. So much for premonitions, but for a while there I was sure something was up.

Nobody does cruelty and savagery like teenagers in high school. Especially those in their early to mid teens. I was thinking about this in the wake of Kimberley Peirce‘s Carrie, about a teenaged girl with exceptional powers being picked on by venal female classmates, and the recent suicide death of 14 year-old Rebecca Sedwick, the Floridian girl who jumped to her death after being bullied online about some inane matter. (Her taunters, one or two of whom are now being prosecuted, were apparently ragging on Sedwick because she had been seeing somebody’s ex-boyfriend.) I was also thinking back to the grief I went through in high school because I was “different” in my own way. What a joyful experience that was! I remember the taunting and the cruelty like it was yesterday.

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A hero or good-guy protagonist is always more interesting if he has weaknesses or flaws of some kind. If you can portray a basically honorable fellow with problems or vulnerabilities, it always enriches the flavor of the character and the portrayal both…no? Which is why I was intrigued when I read about possibly erroneous assertions by Maersk Alabama crew members that the real-life Captain Richard Phillips, portrayed by Tom Hanks in Paul Greengrass‘s Captain Phillips, may have ignored or unwisely dismissed reports about Somalia pirate threats prior to the 2009 hijacking and hostage crisis.

It may be, as noted, that these allegations are untrue, but if I’d been in the shoes of Greengrass and screenwriter Billy Ray, I probably would have seized upon this material as it’s always more engaging when you have a slightly blemished, less-than-true-blue hero.

In a recent Reddit discussion Greengrass said he’s “confident that Captain Phillips did not take an irresponsible route along the coast of Somalia and ignore a specific warning, as alleged in the press. We spoke to every member of the Alabama crew bar one, all of the U.S. Military responders that played a leading role in these events, and thoroughly researched backgrounds of the four pirates and the issue of Somali piracy generally. And I’m 100% satisfied that the picture we present of these events in the film, including the role playing by Captain Phillips, is authentic.

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