Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books, is refusing to sell the film rights to Walt Disney, despite the fact that she's in need of money. Disney is hell-bent on acquiring the rights due to a promise he made to his daughters and has been pursuing Travers for more than a decade. She is finally persuaded to travel to California for a couple of weeks to see if they can reach an agreement.

Emma Thompson is very good as the prickly and imperious author, but the  success of this movie is due almost entirely to the flashbacks of her formative years. Colin Farrell is charming as a doting father, but devastating as a drunk who puts his family in constant peril of poverty. Those glimpses completely inform the author's desperation to literally control the narrative.

That said, the limp characterizations of the Sherman Brothers and the whole-cloth creation of her limo driver felt unnecessary. Overall, however, quite fascinating -- stick around for a few audio excerpts of the recordings that Travers insisted on during the planning sessions.

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