Films about making films can walk a fine line between satire and self-indulgence, often they like to play Hollywood as a dream factory and a world of sleaze and evil. Disney's Saving Mr. Banks doesn't find itself in that thread at all, as Emma Thompson's P.L. Travers finds herself inundated with love from Walt Disney himself (Tom Hanks) in an effort to get the rights to make a movie of her Mary Poppins character, but the film is much more interested in the origin of the character in Travers' life, and the relationship between prickly Travers and loveable Walt. The origin sees a young girl in Australia, leaving a life of comfort and love to move across the country and into a shack at the end of the line, where alcoholic but loveable father Colin Farrell tries to keep his family happy, even when the pressures of his job begin to destroy him. Her mother, Ruth Wilson, is struggling to cope with the move more-so than the rest of the family, and even suffers bouts of severe depression.

This is all character forming stuff that the film goes back to frequently, but the heart and joy of the film stems from Thompson's prickly nature and the lovely, warm-hearted Disney employees that try to make Mary Poppins a Disney film within her boundaries. Complete with cast that includes Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, BJ Novak and Paul Giamatti, smiling, being gentle and nice and trying to win over this bitter pill of a woman, a woman who has much more to her than the nasty nature that she wears all the time. The film sparks and is alive during the Hollywood elements, and the cast really elevate the simplistic, often saccharine script into something much more respectable, and by the time the Sherman brothers sing Let's Fly A Kite, which begins the most joyous scene of the year, you can skip over so many of the film's simple faults for the fact that it employs the same carefree love, joy and warmth that Disney films can at their best. It's The Muppets of drama films.

From the opening hits of Chim Chim Cher-ee on a piano to the final breathy lines by Colin Farrell, Saving Mr. Banks is a bright, sweet, lovely film full of great performances, nostalgia and love for the material. Hanks' Disney is enjoyable and takes centre stage when he needs to, but it is Emma Thompson's film through and through, and there's so many grand moments for her to play with that show what a versatile actress she is, and a charmer, even in the guise of a bitter, mean, prickly woman. In a seemingly simple film, her performance is just so very effective and many audience members will end the film crying as much as they are laughing, whilst the rest of the cast really do a great job to bolster the film around her, making it seem easy to draw the spotlight on Thompson without making it dull whenever she's not on screen. Saving Mr. Banks may be a Disney-fied drama happy to placate the studio in wonder, but there's some real emotion going through and with actors of the calibre of Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, the film comes together and elevates itself beyond anything it should rightfully be. An Oscar candidate.