Saving Mr. Banks
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: December 13, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 19, 2013
Taken on its own, Saving Mr. Banks is a pleasant, crowd-pleasing endeavor. For those with a soft spot for Mary Poppins, however, it's a treasure. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreDec 11, 2013
It was never going to be “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Reserve that honor for the film that inspired it. But Saving Mr. Banks is still one of the best pictures of the year. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyDec 11, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks is a wholesomely square film about a wholesomely square film. But damned if its sugar doesn't go down like honey. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 20, 2013
Speaking of good storytelling, Hancock knows a thing or two about that. Not only does the "Blind Side" director deftly navigate the double narrative of Saving Mr. Banks, but his film is also a visual treat. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 18, 2013
Disney scholars may scoff that it’s not a warts-and-all portrayal of the struggle to bring “Mary Poppins” to the screen, but that seems almost churlish in light of the enthusiasm Hanks brings to the film, or the eventually melting icy facade Thompson puts up. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 12, 2013
The slick but moving Saving Mr. Banks transcends its corporate pedigree to become a great Disney movie about making a Disney movie. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeNov 26, 2013
The whole thing goes down with a few bucketloads of sugar. What keeps it from becoming sticky schmaltz is Thompson, who plays Travers with wit and warmth, adding a spoonful of spoilt child to help the battleaxe go down. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraNov 25, 2013
This is not a simple story of an uptight English woman induced to loosen up by those freedom-lovin’ Yanks, but a delicate and brilliantly acted story of overcoming the past to embrace an uncertain future. Emma Thompson, in particular, is magic. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinOct 20, 2013
Taken strictly on its own terms, Saving Mr. Banks works exceedingly well as mainstream entertainment. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasOct 20, 2013
It’s a bit square, never particularly surprising, yet very rich in its sense of creative people and their spirit of self-reinvention. Read full review
80
The TelegraphDavid GrittenOct 20, 2013
It’s Thompson as the heroically unbiddable Travers who makes the most of it; her bravura performance effectively dominates the film. Read full review
79
Film.comKate ErblandNov 14, 2013
There’s charm and delight here, to be sure, but it is occasionally obscured by attempts to make it somehow darker, deeper, and more dramatic. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianJeff BakerDec 20, 2013
A fascinating blend of brand extension and corporate history. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 20, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks, set in 1961, is smart, delightful. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 18, 2013
The most satisfying portions of Saving Mr. Banks occur when the movie adds pinches of salt to the spoonfuls of sugar making this medicine go down. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedDec 16, 2013
The screenplay, by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, seamlessly captures two different eras with overlapping story lines that never intrude or confuse. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaDec 13, 2013
An intoxicating kiddie cocktail for young-at-heart adults, inspired by a Disney fairy tale based on fact: the making of "Mary Poppins." Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 13, 2013
Thompson is very good at playing imperious, and she even manages an unexpected trace of flirtiness in a few offhanded moments with Hanks. Read full review
75
NPRElla TaylorDec 13, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks does end in tears, but they're Disney tears, as befits a movie about Disney made by Disney. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't see this beguiling piece of pop storytelling, built on half-truths whipped into shape for a storybook ending that never was. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 12, 2013
Sentiment is at its heart. The legions who grew up on Disney's Mary Poppins will find it delightfully satisfying to hear snippets of its enormously catchy songs and watch its captivating creative journey. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 12, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks doesn’t always straddle its stories and time periods with the utmost grace. But the film — which John Lee Hancock directed from a script by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith — more than makes up for its occasionally unwieldy structure in telling a fascinating and ultimately deeply affecting story. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 12, 2013
Because it’s a Hollywood movie from a major corporation looking fondly at itself, it concludes that, while art may heal our psychic wounds, craftsmanship and commerce heal them better. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 12, 2013
A tasty swig of holiday cheer. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 12, 2013
This is a lovingly rendered, sweet film. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 12, 2013
Director Hancock knows a few things about directing crowd-pleasing heartwarmers, having made "The Blind Side." This one wouldn't work without Thompson. Read full review
75
IndieWireAshley Clark Oct 20, 2013
Ultimately, Saving Mr Banks is witty, well-crafted and well-performed mainstream entertainment which, perhaps unavoidably, cleaves to a well-worn Disney template stating that all problems - however psychologically deep-rooted - can be overcome. Read full review
75
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonOct 20, 2013
Even if it doesn't quite stick the landing, there's a lot to like here; it's a fundamentally decent, very well-acted and cannily written film. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 16, 2013
The director is John Lee Hancock, who does what he did with “The Blind Side,” where he commandeered a true and jagged tale, tidied up the trauma, and made sure that everyone lived sappily ever after. Sandra Bullock carried the day then, and now Emma Thompson repeats the process. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 12, 2013
Edges have been softened, harshness has been transformed into happiness sprinkled with eccentricity. And the paradox, of course, is that we're glad to be seduced. As Disney films go, this is a good one. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 12, 2013
It’s a highly enjoyable picture. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 12, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks does not strictly hew to the historical record where the eventual resolution of this conflict is concerned, but it is easy to accept this fictionalizing as part of the price to be paid for Thompson's engaging performance. Read full review
67
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDec 19, 2013
Director John Lee Hancock and screenwriters Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith spend about a third of the film exploring Travers’ childhood in Australia, and there the film succeeds. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 12, 2013
The best parts of Saving Mr. Banks offer an embellished, tidied-up but nonetheless reasonably authentic glimpse of the Disney entertainment machine at work. Read full review
60
The DissolveGenevieve KoskiDec 10, 2013
Those willing or prone to buy into the idea of “Disney Magic” are likely to choke up at least once or twice over the course of Saving Mr. Banks, while those who resist it—the Traverses of the world—will choke on the heaping spoonfuls of sugar the film ladles onto its story. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 10, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks turns Travers’s tense collaboration with Walt and his team of Imagineers into — naturally — a schmaltzy journey of closure, climaxing in a teary screening of the finished musical. Read full review
60
Total FilmPaul BradshawNov 29, 2013
Hanks takes to Walt like a pair of cosy slippers, but it’s Thompson who adds layers to a classy but predictable slice of Disney schmaltz. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 20, 2013
Saving Mr Banks is an indulgent, overlong picture which is always on the verge of becoming a mess. Thankfully, reliable old Tom Hanks snaps his fingers and – spit, spot – everything more or less gets cleared away. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 19, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks is two movies crammed into one cumbersome, overlong drama. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisDec 18, 2013
The saving quality here is Thompson’s performance as the prickly Travers. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 12, 2013
Certainly, this imagineered version of P.L. Travers’s life provides an orderly drama, but it’s uncomfortably reductive. It may be a small world, after all, but it comes in a lot more shades than Saving Mr. Banks suggests. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 12, 2013
The film is too intelligent and well-crafted to dismiss and too good to hate. Some people will love it, and at worst, most people will like it a little. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Dec 11, 2013
The irony of Saving Mr. Banks is that it takes this true story of Hollywood conflict, of artistic integrity pitted against studio moxie, and gives it the same warm-and-fuzzy treatment the company gave Poppins. One woman’s failed battle to stop her work from being Disneyfied has itself been Disneyfied. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickDec 10, 2013
Except for a couple of isolated, mildly subversive moments, Hanks is basically playing the genial host of “The Wonderful World of Disney’’ rather than an actual person. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonDec 10, 2013
Saving Mr. Banks, a fictionalized account of two weeks Travers spent on the lot in Burbank, is proof that Walt has thawed and secretly reclaimed Disney's reins. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyDec 6, 2013
A tale of memory and redemption that does little to linger in the mind and even less to decry P.L. Travers's claim that Disney turns everything it touches into schmaltz. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 23, 2013
A fair number of people have responded with tears and laughs to Saving Mr. Banks, but I found it interminable. Read full review
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