My family and I had high hopes for this movie. It is, after all, based upon the incredibly family friendly Mary Poppins Author's (PL Travers) life. Our hopes were dashed in a very disturbing manner.
**************************SPOILER ALERT******************************** It is almost impossible to write a review on just how awful this movie was without telling the TRUTH (i.e. a spoiler). The advertising and the trailers for this film were very deceptive. They painted a picture of a movie that was based upon hope, adventure and redemption. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT. The story is told, in numerous flashbacks to PL Travers' childhood, which is as dark, distorted and depressing as it gets.
At one point, Traver's dazed mother (stunned and shocked by her complete inability to pull her husband back from the brink of severe alcoholism, the flu and impending death), attempts suicide by almost drowning herself. PL Travers gets on the family horse and rides to the rescue, but the rescue is only a fleeting and pitiful flicker of hope for her tragic family. Travers' dad, who she apparently loved, dies a slow, painful, agonizing and incredibly undignified death.
I kept waiting for a miracle, or SOME SEMBLANCE of redemptive hope to enter the movie. It never happened. At the end of the movie, PL Travers has relented to Walt Disney's persuasion and sold the Mary Poppins movie rights. Travers goes to the premier in Hollywood with all the stars and she cries during the touching scenes, but when Walt tries to comfort her she denies the true reason for her profuse tears.
So Mary Poppins is finally turned into a movie after much hand wringing, manipulation and haughty, bitchy behavior from PL Travers. Everybody wins except PL Travers whose tragic childhood is never redeemed. She is the classic portrait of hopelessness. She is the poster child for a child who was hurt severely in her youth, internalized the pain, became a bitter person, and never recovered.
The movie is disturbing and hopeless. Again, I kept waiting for some Disney or Mary Poppins magic. Isn't that what Disney and Mary Poppins are all about??? The magic never came. The real people in this movie, Travers and Disney, made a profit and the masses were blessed with the character of Mary Poppins on the silver screen. But the heart of Mary Poppins, PL Travers herself, lived on in isolation because no one could stand the bitter old lady.
The movie does not depict it, but she died at 96 in London, after having lived a basically awful, lonely life. According to her grandchildren, "Travers died loving no one and with no one loving her." SAVE YOURSELF FROM THIS MOVIE! This is not a family friendly movie. The interactions with Travers and her dad are incredibly disturbing and I kept waiting for him to molest her. Thank God it never got that far. This is a dark tale and I find the fact that so many people apparently loved it equally disturbing. This is a story of NON REDEMPTION. I would have rather watched "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" than to have spent my family's time on this garbage. I rate this as one star, one of the most hopeless movies I've seen, ever.
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